Scrim
by Zombie Cat Scientist
Summary: Is it really plausible that every single Konoha-living Uchiha was gathered in one place at the time of the massacre for such a large clan? Even if most of them were plotting a coup? An under-handed ninja who believes in acting like a ninja, not a samurai to have flashy one on one contests of power, fakes death and agrees to help Sasuke capture Itachi, years earlier than expected.
1. Chapter 1: Introductions

**Scrim**

_Scrim (definition): a clothe that is particularly see-through. There are many cloths that when worn as blindfolds do not actually blind. Some silks, for instance. If one has a clothe that is darker on one side (by coloration or by being in shadow), it can act like a one-way mirror, allowing one to see through but not to be seen back.  
_

* * *

A pair of ninja entered the inn, one very tall, hulking and blue, the other like the ravens that followed him, and his life depended on giving no reaction.

They had come to kill him.

Even out far from Konoha in the middle of nowhere town, it was hard not to hear about the massacre. A blow like that could signal weakness that could lead to a new war. Everyone was on edge.

Scrim had very different, more immediate reasons to be on edge.

There had been a tiny, scattered number of Uchiha outside of the village at the time; it was basically impossible for such a large clan to have everyone in one place when some missions could demand one take years abroad, or that one scrub every sign of their existence from every record so that there would be nothing to trace back to and to avoid anyone who might recognize them, including their own families.

Key words: There_ had_ been.

Methodically, one by one, they'd been eliminated. This news was much more difficult to get one's hands on, but Scrim's talents had never been in front-line fighting but in infiltration, assassination and information gathering. He was, in other words, a traditional ninja of the like you didn't see quite as often as you'd expect any more, even though the demand for such things hadn't gone down. His real name wasn't even Scrim, and that was the problem.

He had originally been a Uchiha.

Personal name, unimportant.

He hadn't used it in years, and it wasn't why he was a target.

"Excuse me, we're looking for someone," a deep, gravel-like voice sounded behind him, and a hand reached out. _Now _he gave a startled response, turning. "He looks like- but, oh. You can't see, can you?"

Scrim smiled, his bleached and dyed brown hair with a few grey strands (blonde would have shown its falsehood too easily when the roots came in dark) fell messily over his blindfold as he answered, "No, but that does not mean I can't help. As someone who tends a bar, I hear talk from time to time. Are you looking for a relative of yours? Most of the locals here are pretty insular, and we don't get a huge number of people coming in." Most of those who did, were his contacts or bored traders. Or both.

"You could say I'm looking for a relative of my friend, ch'yeah," the big hulking monstrosity said casually. "Dark hair, black eyes, might have had a fondness for wearing blue. Probably quite stoic. May have been carrying weapons."

"Ah, well, depending on whether you parted on good terms or not, you may be worried to know they had a run-in with nuke-nin with fire jutsu and never came back. If you'd like, the bodies of the battle are just south of here in an unmarked grave. You can check for yourself. The nuke-nin is probably long gone, but if you encounter him the town would be mighty thankful to have that arsonist put in the dirt." He spat at the floor for good measure.

"We'll do that," said a second voice, the voice more human sounding yet somehow more chilling for how cold and emotionless it was. Then, without warning, the owner reached for his blindfold and pulled it off.

"Hey!" Scrim objected, floundering and reaching at empty air, his milky white eyes staring out at nothing.

"...my apologies. I just had to make sure." Uchiha Itachi handed the blindfold back to him.

There was something to be said for traditional methods of disguise mixed with modern conveniences. Scrim had never been so glad he'd been paranoid enough to buy an otherwise completely useless pair of contacts that heavily obscured his vision. He didn't use them most of the time, usually just for meeting people or when he might be expected to take the blinds off, but after the news of the murders he'd taken to wearing them near-constantly.

The would-be-murderer would find to the south several heavily charred bodies, one of them with black hair that roughly fit Scrim's physical description, and, to sell the point even more gruesomely, with a pair of eyes that had been gouged out, as if to steal or to destroy before someone else could.

Were Scrim a more aggressive, hotheaded ninja, he might immediately attack Itachi now.

But he was not, and never had been, a brawler. His revenge, if he took it, would be far more methodical and careful than some reckless assault that would simply get him killed. On some level, he wasn't even sure if he wanted revenge, although he was definitely not feeling cheerful. Scrim was out here in bumble-hick-town, chasing bounties and gathering info, because he wasn't exactly the most loyal Uchiha on the planet. He was only barely a Uchiha at all, his grandmother had married out of the clan, his parents hadn't even carried the clan name, and it had been a fluke of genetics that he'd developed the eyes at all. When that had happened, he'd already been a teenager and less than enthused when the Uchiha clan demanded he be swept in to their compound and take on their name. His feelings toward the entire clan had been mixed at best. They only cared about him because of his eyes.

But that didn't mean he'd wanted them all dead. That reminded him. Rumor had it there had been another survivor, a child.

Perhaps it was time to head back home. Discreetly, of course. Shouting to the world another Uchiha was alive was just asking for trouble, and would undo all the effort he'd just put into faking his own death.

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* * *

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Sneaking back into home took some thought, as everyone was extremely on edge and security was high after the massacre. No one wanted the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha (Scrim had to grudgingly admit that he was not exactly, after disobeying orders and staying away from home too long after the death of a team-mate, on the list) to be kidnapped, and with that Uchiha being only a child it had to be extremely tempting to try. Even if the child failed to be sculpted into a new weapon for the thief, even males could be force-bred and used as breeding stock, it simply took more effort. No one wanted the potentially equally long-term-disastrous but less flashy problem of someone getting close to the Uchiha heir and slowly molding them to their liking within the village, either.

Unfortunately, getting close to the Uchiha heir was exactly what Scrim had planned.

Scrim might not be the greatest guy, but, he wasn't about to leave a child related to him (even if only distantly) completely alone.

His first attempt to get in, by applying as a mere civilian for permission to live in Konoha, was rejected. "Sorry, we aren't accepting at this time except for the most in-demand specialties like high-grade weapon smithing. Try again in a year if you are still interested."

One of his favorite techniques was henge, and he was extremely good at it, even enjoying animal forms (sometimes he wished he was a nin-animal instead of a human, their lives seemed simpler), but he had limited use of it around Konoha due to all the Sharingans and Byakugans running around rendering it almost useless. So that was out, although the sudden dearth of Sharingan users made it somewhat more feasible than before it was still too risky. For similar reasons, smuggling himself inside in someone else's caravan or goods was also out.

That left waiting for the right moment in guard movements and scaling over the wall, or through another entrance. With some disgust, he tried the sewers. With even more disgust, he found it fairly poorly guarded. The one confused ninja he encountered there had been a child, and they did not question the ANBU mask he wore when he passed them by with a mere nod as if he was meant to be there. Sometimes, the most effective way to sneak in is to act boldly like you've always belonged there all along.

The clan compound he had no choice but to enter that way, because it was completely surrounded.

The paranoia of Leaf shinobi for once backfired, because not all ANBU knew each other and this meant they could not immediately identify him as an imposter or, more precisely, as a Missing-nin who happened to have an ANBU mask. He gave a brief salute in greeting, correctly used Leaf handsigns to agree to take over someone's shift for the night, and sat himself right next to another ANBU member to watch over Sasuke. Other ninja below were still doing systematic clean-up of the place, house by house, as it had been a giant blood-bath and a mess like that wasn't something you cleaned up instantly, but also because there was no telling what secrets might just be laying around for anyone to snoop into that would be inconvenient to have just lying there supervised only by an often-absent child.

It wasn't quite what he'd had in mind when he'd decided he needed to look after- what was his name? Sasuke? But with tensions so high it would do for the night. When things cooled slightly, and when he had a guarantee that a Hyuuga wasn't one of the ones watching (they would be fools to remove all watchers entirely any time soon, but they couldn't keep a whole team staffed on the boy forever; every ninja staffed not working for a client was a monetary loss), he'd sneak in and introduce himself with the windows safely closed.

Or at least, that was the plan. The sheer grief on the boy's face changed his mind. There is one place, and one place only, where the attention on him is lessened, but only because there are so many others to eye, and even ANBU on protection detail will generally not follow into a crowded building when there are already plenty of ninja ready and willing to protect there, for an ANBU's first job is not too be seen, after all. They could guard just as well at all the exits to the building in question.

The Academy.

It was not a desirable place for any infiltration specialist. There were countless eyes everywhere, and the information to be gathered there was rather low-value. Getting out with a child would immediately garner attention. But, he did not intend to kidnap a child, and he wasn't there for information, and there were many other bodies in the crowd to distract the eye. All he needed was a moment alone with the boy. And then, perhaps, that would be it. After all, Sasuke had never met him before. Perhaps he would want nothing to do with him, and in that case, he'd leave immediately, his guilty conscience assuaged and his last tie to the village severed after the death of both his team-mates and his family.

It is also one of the few places where one can get away with wearing a henge without attracting attention even if the henge is noticed. If one is careful about it, that is.

Sometimes, the best way to be unnoticed is to attract notice.

"Hey guys!" Scrim walks up to a crowd of civilian children, beneath the notice of most ninja, wearing the most nondescript child's face possible, except for the addition of purple hair. Civilian children drop in and drop out quickly after all the time, an unfortunate reality that most don't speak about. "What color hair should I have? I'm practicing my transformation jutsu!"

"Rainbow!"

"Blue!"

"Brown!"

"Brown?! Who'd the heck would choose brown?"

"My mama's hair is brown and she's beautiful!"

One conversation slash argument later, which Scrim was careful not to let get too full-blown while he was there lest it attract attention from the teachers, and he had his alibi down flat in the most innocuous way possible. And that was really all for the benefit of any potential Hyuuga watchers he had missed or any extra paranoid ANBU who felt twitchy about an unrecognized face. Inside the school, he was for the most part home-free, except for Hyuuga students, many of whom wouldn't even know how to use their eyes all that well yet if at all and wouldn't have much reason to activate it in his direction. Even then, with their inexperience they might not even really notice anything. So what if his chakra coils were unusually developed and large for his body? With the Kyuubi carrier in the school, there were sure to be larger. Lots of chakra by itself didn't necessarily mean anything. He was fairly sure it would take careful examination to determine something was amiss, though he was not an expert on Hyuuga dojutsu (he had been taught to focus on village enemies, not how to take down their own people) and he didn't intend to attract that much attention.

There the target- _sorry, old habits, _he mentally corrected - boy was, avoided for the most part by the other children who didn't know how to deal with the grief and misery he exuded. The features were very classically Uchiha. Most of the clans looked like clones of each other, he swore sometimes.

Now, how to get close?

He waited until everyone was moving through the halls again, the crowds meaning a brush against a stranger inevitable and unassuming. Then he layered a genjutsu over the children briefly, who noticed nothing amiss and put up no struggle whatsoever, created a shadow clone henged like Sasuke Uchiha, and then moved into a large empty closet.

"What-" Sasuke cried out, frightened but trying not to show it, putting on a grumpy, offended exterior like a potential foreign ninja trying to grab him was someone who needed to apologize immediately for the indignity or face his terrifying wrath, rather than the reality that he was a small child and could do basically nothing if Scrim was so minded.

Thankfully for him, Scrim wasn't. He dropped the henge and showed the boy his eyes.

"How?" Sasuke went slack in shock, no longer struggling, he simply stared in disbelief. "Are you for real? I watched them all die." The tone is accusing. _If you're real, where were you?_

"Call me Scrim," he said a little gruffly, feeling weirdly naked without his blindfold on. "I had a mission that took me out of the village for a few years and I may have, ah, forgotten to call in. Most people think I'm dead, and I would prefer to keep it that way, but I didn't want to leave you thinking you were completely alone."

"So you survived by running away and hiding," Sasuke said with disdain. "Like a coward."

"Like a real ninja," Scrim corrected. "You think being a ninja is about flashy techniques and showing off your power, don't you?" The shock in his fellow Uchiha's eyes gave it away, not that children were particularly hard to read, even if Uchiha children were more flat-faced and monotone on average than others. "A real ninja is about making the circumstances work in your favor, hiding in the shadows until the time is right, fighting on ground that favors you and not your opponent."

The child looks... worn, beyond his years. "It doesn't matter. I must gain enough power to face Itachi. That is why I was allowed to live. I am an avenger."

So melodramatic. And so horribly wrong.

"And you're going to let the unstable murderer of your entire clan give you advice?" Scrim gave a laugh. "Are you really going to let him dictate your life for you?"

Sasuke looked angry, but then, he'd looked angry almost the entire time, from the moment he'd gotten over his initial shock. His hands balled into fists, unsure how to respond.

"You want revenge, I get that." Scrim appreciated revenge as much as anyone. "I have experience with that, so I can't fault you for it. It's your methods that I disagree with." That got Sasuke to look at him again, more assessing. Good, that meant he'd think about it. "When my team-mates died, I was ordered home because I stood no chance against their killers in a straight up fight. Instead, I chased after their murderers for over a year, and plotted out their deaths for almost as long, waiting for the perfect opportunity." He gave an unfriendly smile. "Everyone has moments of weakness. They watched for poison, but they didn't watch for disease. Their own bowels giving out on them, I cut their throats on the toilet."

Sasuke's eyes are wide at the colorful imagery that inspires, and it belatedly occurs to him that maybe he shouldn't be saying all of this to a small child. But then, this child has seen worse, had they not?

"Strength and power and fighting one on one are for samurai who fight like noblemen. We're _ninja,_" Scrim said bluntly. "That means taking every advantage you can get. Allies are force multipliers. Information is another." He straightens. "That said, I'm not here to force my company on you. If you don't want me or my advice, I'll leave and it will be like I never existed. As a missing-nin, being here is risky enough as it is, but at least I don't have the weight of actually betraying the village on my shoulders..." Scrim shrugs off an imaginary weight. "So the chances of me being hauled off to T&I long-term are low even if I'm caught." Low, but not non-existent. The timing could make it better or worse. Worse, as one might get suspicious why now when he didn't seem to care about his clan before, or certain elements might desire to have a corrupting influence like himself away from the heir. Better, because having your clan massacred except for a single child and a traitor was a pretty good excuse to come back home.

"If you're caught? You aren't planning to come back entirely?" Sasuke said, eyes full of worry.

Scrim shifted, feeling guilty. He had only just appeared here, but Sasuke already looked worried he was going to be abandoned again.

To be honest, he was kind of suspicious about the entire affair. He hadn't known Itachi well, but he'd seemed like a loving older brother. And he'd known the clan had been discontent. It wasn't hard to notice the grumblings about being blamed for the Kyuubi. The rift had not been one-sided. What if who-ever was responsible for the Kyuubi had been motivated to outcast the Uchiha clan - a long shot admittedly - and had not been satisfied with the way things were going and decided to take things hands on? Except that didn't explain how Itachi had gotten into it or why he would agree.

"If you don't want me to leave, I won't, except to pay bills and investigate things. But I think it would be best if I didn't reveal my existence immediately. Call it paranoia if you like, but-"

"No, I get it," Sasuke said. "You can't win a straight up fight with Itachi, but he can't prepare to fight against you or decide to kill you if he doesn't even know you exist." Sasuke seems grudgingly approving, like he isn't quite sure if he likes this or not, but at least he doesn't consider it stupid. "But are we going to get him?" Almost as soon as he says the 'we', he seems to want to take it back. "I mean, are you going to teach me something actually useful for getting revenge on him?"

"If that's what you want," Scrim promised, before digging into his backpack (so useful, why didn't more people wear them? Ah, right, storage seals, because most ninja didn't care to impersonate civilians most of the time) and pulling out a summoning scroll. He was about to shift the conversation, but something occurs to him.

Thinking for a moment, he smirked. "Actually, I already have a plan, one that he'll never see coming. But first, we need to discuss how we're going to stay in contact and meet up long term, and second, you need some of those force multipliers I talked about."

Sasuke, recognizing what he was holding, reached out and took the scroll gingerly. "And a summoning contract will help with both of those?" he guessed.

"Bingo, but, not necessarily in the way you are thinking. I'm about to show you my true talent. With this, you can smuggle me straight in to your own house with no one being the wiser."

With that, he henges himself into a cat, leaving his backpack behind before leaping into it. His chakra would look a bit strange being so large for his body, but as a nin-cat nobody would think twice about it.

"You can henge yourself into an animal?" Sasuke said with surprise.

"Yes," he responded, stretching as he really hadn't shaped himself like this in awhile. "You can even henge yourself into inanimate objects, but that's insanely difficult to do for any period of time." Part of the difficulty being that humans were built to breathe. "Most people don't bother with it or don't even realize you can do it, and that's exactly why I find it so useful. If you do the same thing everyone else does, that just makes you predictable. Now, it will be a little strange if you walk out of school with a new cat, so I need you to smuggle me in that backpack to your home. Nobody will blink twice at the notion you found a summoning contract at the compound. If anyone asks about the backpack, you can say another student gave it to you. Can you do this?"

Sasuke nods, determined not to screw up the first time anyone trusted him with a serious mission. It was an easy one, but still. The backpack was a little heavy for a small child, after all.

But Sasuke, over-shadowed as he might be by his older brother, is still no ordinary child, but one who already manipulates chakra. He picks it up with ease, and heads home, his expression betraying nothing except raw determination and sheer grief.

The same expression he has worn every day since coming back from the massacre.

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* * *

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Author's note: This might just be a one or two-shot, but if it attracts attention I'll give it at least one more update. I have too many fics already that I need to finish, heh.

This was actually originally going to be an Itachi-kidnaps-Sasuke-and-raises-him fic, but I didn't have enough muse for that, so instead, if it continues, it's going to be more like a... Sasuke-kidnaps-Itachi plot, if people want it. Which is exactly backwards from the original muse, but whatever.

I also had half a notion about a sad, 'failed romance' subplot, based around the notion that any village worth their salt is probably going to send a kunoichi to try to seduce an adult valuable bloodline user, and that could easily end in tragedy, but I don't know if anyone would really want to read that. Scrim is, for reference, bisexual and a few years older than Itachi, even if at heart he likes to think of himself as a scruffy old man most ninja just don't live that long. I tentatively had their real name be Satoshi, which I always kind of imagined as being one of the most common and droll Uchiha-names. "Satoshi is alive!" "...which Satoshi? There were, like, a dozen." Not every Uchiha could be uber-special and memorable like the clan heirs.

I am open to suggestions for what people want to see, particularly for shipping.


	2. Chapter 2: Training

**Scrim**

**Chapter Two - Preparation**

* * *

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(a/n: Alright, I decided pretty quickly I was going to write at least a few more chapters of this, it's not fair to put in the premise in the summary and then never deliver on it.

Although I still don't quite get to the big moment this chapter. I ended up spending a lot of time on setup. Next one should be it, though!

As always, if someone else wants to steal this plotline and write their own 'Sasuke kidnaps Itachi' story-line, feel free, I'm not super-possessive over fanfic, the concept makes little sense to me when I'm already borrowing someone else's work. :P)

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* * *

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Scrim had Sasuke blind the windows so he could stroll around the apartment without worries. Being in a henge all the time could get exhausting, even if it was good practice. Exercising one's chakra frequently without over-doing it was a good way to slowly expand one's pools, but Scrim was fairly sure 'doing it nonstop' even if the use was mild counted as over-doing it as one never gave their coils a rest in that scenario. Scrim was good enough he could keep up a henge in his sleep, but that didn't make it a good idea.

A wide yawn escaped him, and reminded him that, yes, he had been maneuvering himself into getting into this place basically nonstop since he'd faked his death. He'd taken the journey here as quickly as possible, and the few nights he'd spent on watch plotting his way into the compound had left him sleeping outside during the daytime as much as he dared. Konoha had, like most villages, a small homeless population, but also like most places this homeless population often had an antagonistic relationship with the police. Since the police were now gone, this fell to your average ninja, who were not actually any kinder. Police would demand papers of the homeless on little to no justification, and it wasn't uncommon for police to confiscate all the possessions of a homeless person on a raid, or for someone to steal papers and ID from a homeless person when their wallet was stored in the same bag as all of their other possessions.(*)

It was, frankly, one of the reasons why he had decided he wasn't suited to such work even though as a Uchiha he had been expected to do it. There had been good police, certainly, but, a policeman had to uphold the law above all, and if a law led to difficulties for others, one had to enact it anyway no matter how inefficient or draconian it was. Seizing 'evidence' that was someone else's only property that then forced someone to go through a bureaucratic system that could take months to re-issue you papers, papers that you might need for medical care or eligibility for food, definitely counted as petty to him. What was worse was that some police just straight up burned the material as 'illegal depositment of garbage/litter in improper zoning areas for such material'.

He really didn't know how to feel about most of the Uchiha being gone. It wasn't going to lead to any positive improvement to society, and it wasn't a good feeling, surely, but... he felt guilty that he wasn't as angry as he thought he should have been about it. After all, they were _family_.

Family he'd gotten along poorly with.

"You can sleep in any room you like," Sasuke offered generously, breaking him out of his thoughts. He looked to one door down the hall, more hesitantly. "Except maybe one. That room was my brother's."

Yes, he could see why Sasuke would feel uneasy about anyone going in there. The last thing he wanted to do was unconsciously cause reminders or, even worse, to get Sasuke to draw paranoid comparisons and start to wonder if Scrim could spontaneously go off the deep end without warning just like Itachi apparently had.

"That's fine. Honestly, I could just sleep on the couch and I'd be happy, it's been days since I've had somewhere nice to sleep." He sat down and felt like he could vanish into the softness of the silk cushions stuffed with downy chick feathers. There was really no comparison between luxury like this and hard pavement, which had left him sore and aching on one side even with his young age. A book on a shelf caught his eye. "What do you like to do late at night right before bed? Do you like to read?"

Sasuke rocked back and forth, biting his lip as if this was a trick question. Maybe to a six year old with a tiny attention span it was. Or maybe he was worried about accidentally saying something that would make Scrim think less of him, if he thought Scrim valued books more than brawn. "Well, I usually train..." he said hesitantly, eying Scrim's face. Scrim offered no disapproval. It was good the boy was so driven, even if doing nothing but physical training was a bit unbalanced. "But if you wanted to read to me, that would be okay."

"I'd enjoy that," said Scrim, surprising himself with how true it was. He hadn't exactly spent a lot of time baby-sitting children, and the last time had been when he'd been a little kid himself on D-missions and he'd hated them at the time. But then, D-missions were practically designed to make you hate them, and often used as punishments for poor performance. It was a strong reflection of their society's values that they paid far more for killing than they did for raising a child, even when one factored into account the difference in risk: a well trained ninja who took only C ranks actually had a pretty good survival rate, as mere bandits were no match for them. Despite all the jokes about the first C-rank always going wrong, heavily misranked missions were not the norm and usually carried steep penalties.

Sasuke nestled in under a blanket next to him after Scrim reached up for the book. There was a brief, pained expression on his face. "Mom read that one to me..."

"Do you want me to choose a different book then?" There was a small but not fantastic selection, most of it not for children. Fugaku was not, he guessed, really a reader of anything except dry work related material. Although, there were a fair few history books, he noted. Maybe he or the mother had been a secret history buff, not a surprising hobby considering their great pride in their clan.(**)

Sasuke shook his head, his chubby cheeks still possessed of baby fat slightly flushed.

"Alright," he agreed, and started to read a tale of a ninja rescuing a princess and discovering they were secretly of a powerful bloodline themselves. Pure propaganda, but a cute story nonetheless.

He looked so _young_. If Itachi really wanted him to grow stronger, couldn't he have left at least one adult alive to look after the boy while he was still in the 'potentially get into dangerous accidents when un-supervised due to not fully knowing their own capabilities' stage? He couldn't even safely look over a stove without risking oil splatter blinding him in the eyes to cook meals for himself, if he even knew how to cook. What idiot thought this was- ah, right. The kind of idiot who had been forced to graduate and become an 'adult' at a ridiculously young age themselves. Never mind.

That grounded Scrim in what his first duties should be. Before anything else, he needed to teach Sasuke basic life skills he might not know yet, in case something happened to Scrim who by all rights wasn't even supposed to be alive. He wouldn't push off training either, of course, he doubted that would fly well with the revenge driven young man, but he could start off first thing in the morning with cooking breakfast, then with haggling at the market.

* * *

The early cooking lesson of scrambled eggs went off without a hitch. Sasuke was a very quiet boy, maybe too quiet, but without knowing what his previous personality was like Scrim couldn't tell if this was a sign of unhealthy withdrawl.

They attracted stares as they headed into the market, but he didn't know if it was because a cat padding alongside a young ninja in training was an unusual sight for those more accustomed to nin-dogs or if it was because people had still not moved on to the next big piece of gossip after the massacre. Probably a mix of both.

He had a pair of actual nin-cats out scouting, just in case. Scrim had Sasuke try his first summoning, but the boy wasn't quite up to it yet, and Scrim told him not to worry about it: "Remember, brute strength isn't everything, and simply through practicing and growing your chakra coils will increase enough for any basic technique, even one like summoning, you might need. Strength and power are tools, to be honed, but not at the sake of neglecting all other tools. If you can't do something yet, it's more fruitful to focus on something else you _can_ do that will eventually carry over benefits to the other skill once you can perform it."

Sasuke nodded, looking relieved at the time. Then, just as he seemed to be cheering up, he faltered.

"What's wrong?"

"I was never able to compare to Itachi's strength, so hearing you say there are other ways of being a successful ninja made me glad... but he was always more skilled at the same age as me at other things too!"

Scrim realized he needed to immediately nip this in the bud. "Sasuke, a fast growing vine may in the first year outstrip a great tree's sapling, but which will be bigger in the end?"

"The tree," said Sasuke thoughtfully, looking warily hopeful.

"Fast growth is impressive, but it isn't always everything. Someone who goes over an array of subjects quickly because none of them really challenged them may not remember or ultimately master it as well as the person who goes through one subject slowly and carefully, taking in every part of it. For example, most people don't remember a lot of things from when they were 5. If you learned everything you were supposed to up to age 10 in just one year, and then ended up not using them again very often, say because you ran from home to become a missing-nin, how likely do you think it is you would actually remember them that well by the time you were an adult?"(***)

"...not very likely?"

"Practice is important to memory retention and recall, and there is only so much material one can go over in a single year in-depth even if one has a near perfect memory." It was entirely possible Itachi had a photo-graphic memory even without sharingan use, in which case, Scrim could very well be in a lot of trouble if Itachi ever spotted him in Konoha, even wearing a different disguise. Although, since he planned to be henged as a cat or other animal most of the time, that probably wasn't an issue. "Did you know that some of the best memory champions don't have a photographic memory?"

"They don't?" Sasuke said, startled.

"They use a technique called the mind palace or mental stories instead," Scrim informed him. "They come up with mnemonics to help them remember, and invent a story or a building layout to mentally 'walk' through. This allows them to remember huge sequences of digits or other symbols with only a short time to memorize it. 1 could represent a baby, for instance, 9 an old man, 7 someone with a hunched or injured back. You can remember more numbers than you could 'see' on a single photograph that way. As an information specialist, I use the technique whenever I only have a brief time to glimpse information and need to memorize it as quickly as possible." Scrim paused. "You know what? This can be your first training session. When we go to the market to buy food, I want you to try to memorize what you see there, the different signs and prices but also the people and their descriptions. I want you to prioritize not being caught staring over memorizing, okay? Memorizing will get easier with practice, but not acting too noticeable is a habit I want you to culture right away."

Sasuke nodded, showing no sign of being overwhelmed by all of this, and his upset was completely gone, successfully distracted by this new goal.

Ultimately, their mini-quest was disrupted by the sudden appearance of an orange streak and lots of very loud yelling. Scrim flattened his ears with deep annoyance; their new shape picked up sounds more sensitively than his original ones.

"Naruto," muttered Sasuke with disdain. Naruto? The Kyuubi container? Interesting. If they were anything like the container in the Village Hidden in the Sand, perhaps they should keep a healthy distance.

"THIEF!"

"I paid for it the same price as everyone else, so I should be able to take it! I left the money on your counter, old man!" the orange blur resolved itself into a young, under-fed (but not, at least, outright starving) child with blonde hair and an atrocious outfit. What kind of self respecting ninja would ever wear such a thing? Seriously.

"But that's not the price I offered you! I told you, the moment you walked through the door, the price increased! As the owner, I'm allowed to charge whatever I like!"

Scrim felt conflicted, however. This was exactly the kind of petty legal conflict he'd hated when the Uchiha had tried to convince him to be a policeman. Technically, it was true that the owner could hike prices whenever he wanted, and lower them whenever he wanted, as long as every customer at that time was paying the same price. But it was incredibly unjust. What topped it all off was that it looked like the conflict was over basic necessities. Naruto was holding _food._

If this was a common occurrence, no wonder he was underfed.

"Sasuke," he said, making up his mind. "The orange miscreant may be an idiot who wears the last coloration any self respecting ninja should wear, but that shop keeper is bullying him. That's not right."

Sasuke got the message, and without further prodding, though with great reluctance, he moved forward. "Hey. I had things I needed to buy from that shop. Does the price hike mean I need to take my business somewhere else?"

The panic on the shop-keeper's face was incredibly satisfying. "Oh, no! For you, young sir, a discount. Terribly sorry about what happened." Sasuke gave an agitated twitch at this second straw being broken. He did not like his family being brought up.

"Alright. Then I would like to buy the exact same thing Naruto was buying." He turned to Naruto, who was looking glum and suspicious at this latest turn. "You can just pay me back."

Naruto flailed - seriously, how could one being have so much energy? - and nearly toppled himself over in surprise. "Whaaaaaat?!"

Sasuke gave another agitated twitch. Third straw of his patience broken. He shoved the coins into the shopkeeper's hands, then pulled Naruto's off the counter in a quick exchange, grabbed his own necessities, then he rapidly walked off back toward home.

Naruto did not get the message and followed behind like a lost puppy.

"What did you go and do that for? Does this mean you want to be friends?" Naruto said hopefully, speaking rapid-fire. "Wait, you aren't pitying me, are you? And when did you get a nin-cat? Are they giving them out? Why isn't it a fuzzy kitten? Can_ I_ get one?!"

Sasuke growled. "No."

Then he shut the clan gates on Naruto's face.

"To which question was that a 'No'?!" Naruto demanded.

"All of them!"

Scrim tried not to laugh. No, this jinkuuriki was no Gaara, he just rubbed Sasuke completely the wrong way personality-wise. They were like cats and dogs, they had better hope they never ended up on the same team - then he froze, a horrible thought occurring to him.

"Sasuke?" he started to ask, unhenging once they were safely inside.

"What?" said Sasuke, still irritated and putting the groceries away.

"What are your and Naruto's comparative scores? Would it be fair to say you have about the best and he has the worst?"

Sasuke nodded, confusion showing on his features at where this line of questioning was going.

"They often try to the balance the teams combat and skill-wise, at the cost of considering whether the teams are actually temperamentally suited for each other. One is expected to act like a professional no matter what their colleagues are like, after all." Scrim thought back to his own muscle headed lug of a team mate who had gotten himself killed. The man had been the balancing heavy lifter of the group, but in the end, his impatience and lack of thoughtfulness had just led to disaster. If he had been sent only on missions where combat was the focus, there would have been no problem, but the months end drag of their last mission had been too much for him. His comrade snapped and picked a fight with one of the targets who was committing a crime. The last thing he wanted was another repeat of his own story for Sasuke, especially when what Sasuke probably needed most right now - and what Scrim couldn't really provide - was friends. Close friends were not people who constantly got on your nerves, those were friendly acquaintances (otherwise, you needed better friends). "It may be in your best interest to help him with his scores, if you don't want to end up on a team with him."

Sasuke groaned at the thought.

Who knew. Naruto was young enough that a correction now could actually stick long-term. And at least this way, Sasuke would be interacting with someone else who was his own age.

"Me personally, if I had to pick, I'd put the worst scoring together because then you could take them at a pace appropriate for them, and same with best scoring, and occasionally mix it up for a broader range of experience. I'm not sure sticking to one team all the time is actually the greatest idea, as different combinations of people will be better in different circumstances, and of course you wouldn't want to always use groups of 3..." Scrim shook his head. "But, ah, I'm not in charge. What we have is a natural outgrowth of starting with an apprenticeship system and our society developing toward squad-focused tactics and adapting what it already had. If we had to re-start from scratch today, of course there's a good chance we'd end up with something different, whether that be better or worse."

Sasuke looked at him intently, and Scrim realized he'd been wool-gathering.

"Sorry, I was rambling, wasn't I? I had a long time of only myself and potential enemies to really talk to..." he apologized.

"No, it was interesting," Sasuke clarified. "I've never really thought about how our society was built or whether it could be different."

Of course not, he was only, what, 6? "Most people don't. It's hard work and no one teaches them to think about it. Talking to the wrong person about it could get you branded a potential traitor, to make it worse." He wandered over to the history books on the shelves. "Our history books tend to only give one perspective. Only the winners write history, after all. This can give the impression that since we won, what we are doing now is the best possible way to go about things. But that may not necessarily be the case. While a better trained small force can win against a larger, it's also true that a larger, shoddily trained force can prevail and that this is actually the norm once you have sufficient over-whelming numbers. We just tend to remember the more dramatic surprising examples better."

"Itachi was just one..." Sasuke said softly.

"Yes, but the Uchiha also weren't mobilized. Many were even asleep at the time." Sasuke flinched, likely remembering something brutal. "Remember this, Sasuke: even Itachi the power-house didn't fight fair. He used a surprise attack to get the advantage."

"So that's what we're going to do to him?" Sasuke ask, mouth forming a grim line.

"That's what we're going to do to him," Scrim agreed. "But first we have to find him. I know one of his last known locations and I have a cat tracking from there." Cats were not as good as nin-dogs for the task but they still had better noses than humans.

Sasuke looked surprised. "When did you learn that? You only got here and agreed to help me a day ago."

"Ah, I guess I forgot to tell you. Itachi tried to kill me." Sasuke paled. "But he couldn't kill someone he thought was already a corpse. I lied right to his face."

Sasuke trembled. "You... you should have stabbed him in the back..."

Scrim shook his head. "No. The timing was poor, and he had a partner working with him. That's another thing we'll have to plan carefully. Ideally, we'll need to separate them or time something to take them on both at once."

"A partner?" Sasuke asked with interest. "Nobody ever said anything about a partner. Do you think he...?" his voice dropped off.

"Had one during the massacre?" Scrim guessed the question. "I don't know, but it would explain some things if it wasn't a complete solo job. Even with the advantages he had, the sheer scale of the attack shouldn't have been possible before an alarm sounded. One person can only kill so many people at one time." This was a gruesome subject, and he wondered again if he should really be having it with Sasuke, but, Scrim's own childhood hadn't been exactly completely protective and devoid of harsh topics. He'd still been expected to become a ninja and murder at a young age, even if he'd been far too lazy to ever pull off an 'Itachi' (and, to be frank, not foolish enough even at that age - he recognized there was no prize for rushing to the front as soon as possible), he'd still been drafted into a bloody war. Sasuke was lucky in that at least he ostensibly lived in peacetime...

Not that this had saved his family.

Could this be a silent war attempt by another nation, he idly wondered? Things about it still didn't make sense. Why, who, and for what purpose? If it had really been a prelude to something there should have been another attack by now, admittedly.

"Alright, now, tell me all that you memorized on the route up and back."

Sasuke flushed. "...Naruto distracted me!"

* * *

The second major training exercise Scrim gave Sasuke was received far less favorably.

"You want me to _WHAT_?!" Sasuke did his best Naruto impression for half a moment. Which was still much quieter than the real Naruto.

"Take the kunoichi-only classes, yes. It'll be great practice of your infiltration and henge skills."

"But they're icky girls!"

Once again, Scrim was reminded of Sasuke's actual age.

"That may be," Scrim said, seeing no point in arguing about that when his mind would naturally change on the subject with age, even if he never developed an attraction. "But it's still good practice. Think about it: where else can you practice sneaking with so many targets interested in detecting your true identity, but without the risk of death on discovery?"

Sasuke made a grumbling noise, which Scrim took as a _'I do not want to but I cannot think of a good excuse to get out it_', and thus, victory for Scrim.

...hey, winning arguments with six year olds was harder than it sounded! When he made a salad, he had a devil of a time getting Sasuke to stop picking out everything that wasn't a tomato.

Scrim had another reason, which was that most knowledge was potentially useful. If there was something actually of value to be learned in the kunoichi classes, then all shinobi should be learning it, in his opinion. Sewing? Extremely useful on a long mission where you tear holes in your clothes. Etiquette? Useful for handling certain clients. Seduction? Not something they'd be learning so early, but, not something to sniff at either. Scrim had successfully gone on a few of those. It helped when you already knew the target's tastes ran in a direction you could mimic, and with henge, you could mimic just about anything.

* * *

"Oh! Looks like we have a new face, class! What's your name? Tell us about yourself."

"I am..." Sasuke fidgeted. "Mikoto. No last name. I like... boys and flowers?" 'she' phrased that more as a question than anything else, and came off sounding like the phrase was slightly distasteful. Not so good, Sasuke. He brushed against him with his cold wet nose, and Sasuke had to hide a disgruntled expression. "Please take care of me and my dog," he said with formal politeness and a slight bow. Not a bad recovery.

"Well then, you'll fit right in! Such a polite little thing!" the kunoichi in charge exclaimed, and ushered the poor boy forward, who struggled for a moment to maintain the henge and quickly moved before he could be touched for more than a moment on the shoulder. "Today we're gardening and focusing on flower meanings and useful herbs."

"Hi, I'm Sakuru Haruno, and this is my friend Ino," a pink haired girl introduced herself, standing up on her tip-toes and swaying back and forth as she pruned a potted plant.

"Hn," said Sasuke in response. Scrim nudged him. "I mean, nice to meet you. I look forward to doing girly activities with you, like a girl." A little over the top there, bud.

Thankfully, the other small children didn't seem to think much of it, Ino merely giving him an odd look for a second at his stilted phrasing. "So, are there any boys you like?"

Sasuke was unable to hide his tortured look. _Why, world, why, _he was probably thinking as he tried and failed to keep a straight face and frantically think up an answer. _Wasn't it enough you stole my parents from me? What fresh torments shall you visit upon me next? Destroying all the tomatoes in the world?_

"Ah, that's okay, you don't need to tell us if you're too shy!" Ino said cheerfully, completely misinterpreting. "We'll tell you who we like. I've been meaning to ask Sakura that anyway. All at once? One, two.."

"Sasuke Uchiha!" the two sounded at once, then looked at each other with horror.

"You like the same boy I do?" Sakura exclaimed. "That... makes us love rivals!"

"No! Then, our friendship... it must come to an end! I will vanquish you Sakura, this I swear!"

Sasuke looked ready to crawl into a corner and die, and started to inch away. This mission was going downhill fast. It was up to Scrim to mount a recovery. "Excuse me," he said, and they looked down at him.

"Eh?!" Ino said.

"A talking dog?!" Sakura was taken back. "Mikoto, you're so lucky!"

"Yes, I'm a nin-dog. Yip yip, and all that." He gave a short, pretend-enthused wag of his tail for emphasis. "Anyway, why do you even like this Sasuke character?" He gave a glance to Sasuke, to see if Sasuke was getting the idea. Interrogate the subjects for information. If nothing else, Sasuke no longer appeared to be wilting like some of the indoor flowers there that hadn't gotten enough sun.

"Why wouldn't we? He's dark, broody, mysterious..."

"...he gets the best scores in class, so he's clearly talented..." Sakura continued where Ino left off.

"He's rich," Ino admitted with a shrug.

"He's not loud and annoying like Naruto," Sakura finished.

"It sounds like you don't actually know him very well at all. Being rich and scoring well doesn't tell you too much about someone's character," Scrim stated. "Do you even have anything in common with him? A relationship should be based on mutual interests." Scrim counted himself very lucky to have learned that. It would have been so easy for him not to have picked it up and put himself in a terrible relationship, because, frankly, Scrim did have a slight soft spot for romance. It was a weakness that had to be guarded carefully when so many in this world would use you and spit you up.

Ino and Sakura exchanged frustrated looks. "But boys and girls like different things."

"That's not always true. You all want to become ninja, right?" They nodded.

"Oh! So that could be our common interest. Being ninjas!" Sakura said. Sasuke just looked lost.

"No, that's not enough. There are many other boys who want to become ninjas, but you don't like them, do you? There is also more than one way to approach being a ninja. Some ninja desire to be strong and powerful above all else, others rack up a giant kill score... what if the kind of ninja you want to be ends up conflicting with what he turns out to be, and you realize you have different philosophies?"

"I want to be a beautiful ninja that people both fear and admire," Ino said. "Maybe go into T&I like my dad."

Wanting to go into torture at her young age? Woof. That was really something. They got to them young, didn't they?

Sakura looked unsure of what she wanted. "Um, I want to be a beautiful ninja that is feared too."

"I'd like to be feared," 'Mikoto' offered, having almost disappeared entirely into the background. Not a bad ability to have if one could do it intentionally. "But maybe sometimes it would be better to be unknown. I'd rather avenge injustice, whatever it took."

"That's so cool, Mikoto!" Ino said encouragingly. "Like a hunter-nin."

"Alright, so you all have goals. But you two, have you been working hard at being ninja, or have you just been focusing on the beautiful part? Because I can guarantee you, he probably doesn't care that much about becoming a beautiful ninja." Sasuke snorted with amusement at that. Ino and Sakura looked down in shame.

The bell rang, and they left class, Sasuke rushing out quite eagerly, relieved to get out the awkward situation and to be able to finally drop the henge. That had definitely been educational, though not quite in the way that Scrim had been expecting.

"Do you have a clear idea of where you still need work?" Scrim asked, curious if Sasuke could self-identify flaws. That was a good skill to have.

"I grew quiet instead of taking the opportunity to gather information," Sasuke said glumly.

"And to influence the targets to act in your favor," Scrim told him. "Manipulating perceptions and information. It's an extremely under-appreciated part of the traditional ninja's tool-set. In another circumstance, one might be responsible for sending out false rumors. In this case, the truth worked just as well."

"Like faking one's death," Sasuke caught on. "Or misleading on the number of your forces?"

"Yes." He nodded his dog head, before replacing with his more usual cat-henge. No need for anyone to ask why Mikoto's dog was hanging around with Sasuke Uchiha and where his new cat had went. "There was another area you were weak on. You were a bit too stilted, and you over-acted. In reality, if you know your acting skills aren't very good, it's better to choose a role closer to your real personality. Not all girls are conventionally girly."

"But nobody would get close to a tom-boy," Sasuke pointed out. "And if I acted too much like myself, someone might recognize me from my behavior."

"True," Scrim admitted. Well, not totally true, Scrim certainly didn't care about conforming to conventional femininity, but at this age most little girls would. Especially one's from civilian backgrounds or frequent interaction with them. "There are trade-offs. With enough practice, it shouldn't matter."

"Practice... does that mean I'm going back there again?" Sasuke said with clear dread at the answer. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," Scrim answered mercilessly. "So you should spend some time thinking about your backstory in case anyone asks."

Sasuke's shoulders slumped.

"...would it make you feel better if we forced Naruto to dress as a girl as well, since you're tutoring him?"

Sasuke shook his head. "I think he already dresses as a girl! I don't want him to know I do too. It's embarrassing."

Scrim blinked, fascinated at this new aspect. Maybe Naruto wasn't such a close echo of his old team mate after all. "Really? He decided to do this all on his own?" An uneasy feeling filled him. "He didn't do it just to do something perverted like sneak into the women's bathing rooms, did he?"

Sasuke gave him a confused look. "Why would anyone want to do that?"

"Right, I forgot your age for a moment." He gave a relieved laugh. "To be honest, I never understood the fascination with naked bodies myself, even though I'm bisexual. Or maybe it's exactly because I'm bisexual that I know nakedness by itself isn't all that exciting."

Sasuke still looked very confused.

"Remember to ask me when you're older," Scrim decided. Young child soldier or not, some things were best explained later in life.

"I won't," Sasuke promised.

"You won't grow older or you won't remember?" Scrim teased.

"I won't get interested in such things so I won't need to ask," Sasuke declared. "I'm going to be much too busy avenging my clan and restoring it."

"...Sasuke, how did you think you were going to restore your clan without getting interested in girls?"(****)

Sasuke blushed.

* * *

"We've got a sighting on the suspect," one of his cats informed him one night.

And things had started to get so _peaceful._

Well, not completely peaceful. Sasuke was whining and digging in his feet about the more unpleasant things he was asked to do, like tutor Naruto or infiltrate the kunoichi. In a way, that was a good sign: it meant he wasn't completely withdrawn and had come to feel comfortable around him, comfortable enough to act out. In another, it might be bad: children often whined more when they were dealing with a lot of stress.

"It's easy for you to ask me to do it, you don't have to do it yourself, you get to be a dog!" Sasuke complained.

"Is that so?" Scrim said thoughtfully. "Alright then. We can switch places. But only if you can successfully pull off a dog henge."

That shut Sasuke up, and he threw himself into his training. Unfortunately, animal henges were much, much more difficult than people. Imagine the difficulty some have simply turning into the opposite sex and magnify that a hundred fold and you about have the right idea.

He didn't manage it the first day, nor the next, but eventually he managed to hold one...

For a few moments until it broke.

"Why did that happen?" Sasuke asked, frustrated.

"It's because the shape is radically different from your body. It doesn't want to shape that way. It's also easier to shape into something larger than you than something smaller, because then you're 'adding on' rather than 'taking away', which is why you still find it relatively easy to henge into your teachers," Scrim explained. "But, a deal is a deal. You managed to pull it off for a few seconds, so I'll play Mikoto today. You can learn a lot from my performance. We'll just say the dog didn't feel like coming."

"But how am I to observe you if I'm not in the class?" Sasuke said.

"Simple, I'll just show up at the non-kunoichi classes. It'll help Mikoto fit in better anyway, never showing up for them would be suspicious." He didn't mention that he'd sneaked in just to add records about her last night, at around the same time he added an extra ANBU to the 'available for missions' roster. It was, in his opinion, a terrible breach in security that they were so paranoid about spilled identities that basically no one knew who all the ANBU were at one time, not even the Hokage - there really was such a thing as stabbing yourself in the foot in over-zealousness swinging at the 'enemy'. He figured he could use a little extra in-come, and while he was teaching Sasuke a lot, he knew if that was the only thing he did he would get bored quickly, especially when Sasuke was in class doing exercises Scrim had learned (and in some cases forgotten in their simplicity) ages ago.

Scrim wouldn't tell Sasuke the news about the Itachi sighting just yet. It was too soon, Sasuke clearly wasn't ready with his acting skills, and the target might vanish again. That, and he hadn't taught Sasuke everything he knew about cooking yet.

But there were a few plans he could try in the mean-time that wouldn't even require either of them being there...

* * *

"Your cat is weird," Naruto informed Sasuke.

"So what?" Sasuke said, having just entered class and already looking incredibly annoyed.

"Where is he?" Naruto asked in concern.

"Cats wander off. It's what cats do," Sasuke informed him.

"'Kay," Naruto said, but still fidgeted with poorly disguised concern. "Who's that?"

"Mikoto," Sasuke answered, then froze when several heads turned toward him.

"You know that girl, Sasuke?" Fiery gazes turned Sasuke's way, belonging to Ino, Sakura, and several other girls.

"No!" he protested. "I just walked into her on the way here and she introduced herself, that's all."

But it was too late, as they were already crowding around 'Mikoto', demanding to know her relationship to Sasuke, and if they were 'engaged already', which was quite ridiculous.

Mikoto's face scrunched up, and she buried her face in her arms and started to wail. "I d-don't know, I just wanted to make fra-fra-FRIENDS! Now I don't know if I even want to be a ninja, if this is all you care about! You're so-so meaaaaannn!" Sasuke plugged his fingers in his ears to save his poor eardrums. If he hadn't known better, he would have never guessed this was a grown man.

"Students!" Iruka-sensei shouted, looking horrified. "What are you doing? Stop crowding around the poor girl! And on her first day, too!"

Then, Mikoto ran out of the classroom, face still buried in her arms.

"Detention, all of you!"

Iruka started to leave the class, but then some smartass popped up with a hopeful comment: "So, does that mean no class? Bright side to everything!"

...And Iruka turned to face them with rage on his expression. "Surprise quiz. Starting immediately."

Everyone groaned.

* * *

At the first opportunity, Sasuke sought out Scrim, and found the imposter cat on a windowsill sunning himself. Despite himself, he found himself a little worried. "They didn't really hurt your feelings, did they?"

Scrim burst out chuckling. "Sage no. I buried my face in my arm to keep myself from grinning in plain sight, and I ran out when I couldn't take it anymore and had to laugh. That's a lesson to you right there: know your acting limits! But what else did we learn?"

"That being dignified is not important to a ninja?" Sasuke deadpanned. "You mentally scarred those girls for life." What Sasuke meant was that _he_ was mentally scarred for life, but he didn't want to admit that.

"Eh, only the nicer ones. The meaner ones will be triumphant that they chased competition off, maybe mixed with a touch of guilt. Watch people carefully, Sasuke. You can learn a lot from how they act from misfortune that they benefit from. Too many people will happily look the other way if their wallet or comfort depends on it." Scrim, unfortunately, included from time to time, as he had never thrown up as much fuss as he could have over his disagreements with how the Uchiha were handling their relations with the rest of the village. He just had his limits. But maybe if he had spoken up more vigorously sooner, what happened wouldn't have... no, what-ifs never solved anything except to make one feel guilty. What was in the past was in the past. He was not the one who murdered the clan. "So I take it you didn't carefully take in everyone's reactions." Sasuke shook his head, feeling guilty. "Ah, that's okay. This is a learning experience. What's the second thing we learned?"

Sasuke thought for a bit. "My mistake. I... spilled information that I shouldn't have known yet?"

"That's why, in practice, it's always good to go over mission details step by step and come up with alibis before hand, not on the spot. If you have to concoct everything on the spot, something went wrong in your planning somewhere. Sometimes, that can't be helped: there will always be variables you didn't account for. But one should still try to do so."

Sasuke nodded.

"Do you feel like you are learning a lot from me?" Scrim asked. "I've never taught before. If you have any disagreement with my methods and think I can improve somewhere, feel free to speak up."

Sasuke shook his head. "No, I'm glad, no, I'm frustrated that the academy doesn't teach this. Why not?"

"The wars and development of more powerful jutsus shifted the focus of ninja from being supplements to more traditional armies containing samurai to being essentially armies in their own right, and with that we switched from a focus on subterfuge to a focus on basic combat skill mastery," Scrim informed him. "It's also the case that a large academy simply can't afford to give every student one on one attention. In reality, you would probably get teaching about this from a jounin sensei if you ended up on an information gathering specialty team. That's what happened with me." He paused, considering. "It probably will not be what happens with you, however."

"Why not?" said Sasuke, indignant.

"It's not an insult to your abilities, quite the contrary," he reassured. "It's because as the only Konoha Uchiha," that they were aware of, "they'll want to show you off. That means a combat specialty team for almost certain, probably a strong mix of taijutsu and ninjutsu, possibly genjutsu or healing to round it off. It's another reason you might end up on a team with the 'orange dobe'," he quoted Sasuke's own term for the boy, "as he definitely seems too brash and impatient for anything else."

Sasuke kicked his feet. "Are you saying," he hissed, "all my effort at tutoring him went to nothing?"

"Not nothing. If he will be your team mate no matter what, then you definitely don't want him dragging you down with his ignorance," Scrim told him.

"Tch," said Sasuke. "He probably won't even graduate. You're worrying over nothing."

Scrim smiled, knowing something Sasuke didn't. They would be fools not to make use of a Uzumaki, especially one carrying the nine tail fox. Even if he failed, he would probably get some sort of apprenticeship and tutoring. And then... then they would probably want him on a team with a Uchiha. Just in case something went wrong.

"So, third thing." He shifted the topic back. "I set things up so that nobody will be surprised when Mikoto inevitably drops out and disappears like most civilians do. It's always good to set up your escape plan well ahead of time."

They headed home, and continued talking amiably for a long while over tactics. Well, mostly Scrim talked and Sasuke listened, but he wasn't about to complain. The kid comprehended everything he said and never slacked off. If Sasuke didn't have Itachi to compare to, would everyone be calling him a genius?

No, he mentally corrected, thinking of the children's reactions. Many already were. It was Sasuke's self-esteem alone, measured perpetually against the monster of his nightmares, that prevented him from seeing that in himself.

* * *

"Someone is trying to kill you," Itachi said idly, as if this was normal conversation material as dull as the weather. For him, it basically was.

Kisame slurped his noodles, then paused. "What? Where?"

"Your drink has something laced in it. So does mine, for that matter." Itachi hadn't touched it. He didn't really like to drink in any case, but Kisame had insisted.

Kisame shrugged. "Mm. With my metabolism, I'll probably just shrug it off. Hey, doesn't that make that the, hm, third attempt this week?"

"It does," Itachi said, who of course would never lose count of such things.

"Shouldn't we do something about it?" Kisame looked around. "At least kill whoever laced the drinks."

"Already done," Itachi informed him. At that moment, one of the bartenders toppled over, head detached from his body. "They did not even have chakra. I suspect someone bribed them, hoping their lack would make them less suspicious."

"Then the real killer isn't even here?" Kisame said with frustration. "That's no fun." He stood up. "I'm going to murder some people. Our cover is clearly already blown, so laying low doesn't matter, right?"

"If you insist," said Itachi emotionlessly.

"Yeah," said Kisame. "I think it'll send a good message if I murder the whole town. Maybe the assassin is one of them. Only one way to find out, right?" He gave a shark-tooth filled grin and pulled out his man sized sword.

Then the screaming began.

.

* * *

A/N:

(*) This is true in real life, at least in the USA. People underestimate how difficult mandatory IDs are for the homeless, because they have to carry around all their paperwork on their person. Since we know Konoha demands ID at least for ninja, it's not hard to imagine that their police aren't significantly different from real world police. Most people think the difficulty is just about voting, but you need ID for just about everything: banking, medical care, food benefits, the list goes on...

The other big difficulty with being homeless that few think about is having no place to collect mail or safely store your belongings, which is not unrelated to the first difficulty as residency is often a big part of getting ID and sleeping in unsafe places is usually why things get stolen.

(**) I don't have supplemental material, nor did I ever read the last manga chapters so if this is dead wrong and Fugaku/Mikoto is known to actually have, say, a secret stash of romance novels and this was somehow a deathly important plot detail, I am unaware of it and you'll just have to deal with my AU.

(***) As someone in the gifted category who is capable of going through subjects with little effort and getting good grades and probably closer to the 'Itachi' side of the spectrum than the Sasuke side (although frankly Sasuke is no slouch), I can confirm my retention years later is terrible compared to someone who had to put more effort into it. Of course, I'm not a TV style super-genius either (I think nobody is - photographic memory for instance is treated like a super power, for instance, when it isn't; people with photographic memory are as susceptible to fake memories as everyone else - and people who pull random probabilities out of their ass with no error bars given aren't geniuses in the real world, which is another common stereotype), so feel free to take my words with a grain of salt.

(****) ...Did anyone ever explain sexy times to canon-Sasuke? Presumably, since he reproduced, but it might explain some of his cold demeanor as a teen toward the entire female population if he thought babies just popped out of the ground. Now I'm just imagining how that conversation went. I can see Kakashi either running away or having too much fun with it, honestly.

Since I have just a few reviews I thought I'd reply to most of them quickly. (my old account email doesn't work so, yeah, no PMs for me)

_Helily chapter 1 _

_It's a lovely surprise to see you playing in the Naruto world again._

_Can't say I've really seen any Sasuke kidnaps Itachi fics. The idea amuses me even though Itachi is one of my favorite darlings and the idea of a vengeful Sasuke kidnapping him with Scrim's help is worrisome to me. Still, highly intriguing. Also, I already adore this Scrim character._

_Aha, so you plan to finish your other stories? Good luck and that is good news even if I mostly don't read those other fandoms._

_To be fair, if they're always so flashy, no one will suspect their moments of subtlety, etc. but yes, they were strangely upfront, etc. and I just assumed it was for the sake of the readers/watchers, but who knows? I am sure there were/are all types. Why am I typing this?_

_Anyway, hope all is well with you. Thank you for this chapter and please write the continuation if you come to a decision. Have fun and thanks again_

Oh wow, I have a return reviewer... for a fic with only one chapter! That's not what I was expecting, heh. You have no idea how much that delighted me. One of my biggest problems with finishing fics is I run into perfectionism syndrome / convince myself that all the ideas I have in mind for the future are dreadful, so it's often easier for me to nerve myself up to doing batches of chapters nearly all at once and just run on the momentum (which is how things are looking for this fic right now)... but obviously, if you followed me over from other fics then you must have enjoyed them.

I'm glad you liked Scrim. There's always a danger with OCs that people will get frustrated at them stealing the show from other characters. I tried to make him balanced by making him a stealth specialist rather than the combat-focused fare you usually see. I agree with you the flashier ninjas were probably for the sake of reader enjoyment, which is also probably the same reason Naruto didn't know what chakra was despite being stated to be a hard worker and in a society where 'chakra' is almost certainly a very common word, making not knowing it akin to not knowing the word for magic.

_.-.  
_

_this is naruto so insta -1/10_  
_/s_

_.-._

_I have no shipping preferences._

_.-._

Haha, thank you guys. You know, if you wanted to give a lower score, mathematically speaking -10/10 would be worse than -1/10...

Anyway, I guess it's too soon to see if Scrim has any actual chemistry with anyone, isn't it? In that case it might be better to ask if there is any ship anyone would completely hate. I don't think I could see shipping him with the younger generation so that leaves the older, and a lot of those characters are, hm, taken or extremely murderous. For shipping younger characters with each other, it'd have to wait until they are a bit older, but I'd probably have the canon Naruto/Hinata (mostly in the background, not as a large focus). I know that some people really hate this ship for some reason though? Idk why, their relationship is much healthier than the canon Sakura/Sasuke as far as I can tell.

Anyway, I apologize that this chapter was mostly talking and not a lot of action.


	3. Chapter 3: Premise

**Scrim**

(A/N: Alright, I'm finally gonna deliver on the premise, if later in the chapter. I felt I should do at least that much. Sorry for the delay, I was distracted by other things.

Also the start of this chapter turned out way more fluffy and cute than I was expecting, haha. So prepare for mood whiplash. Although it is a little sad, since it has Scrim reading and thinking about how to deal with a traumatized child...

Small quick update right after posting because I managed to forget Kisame's name. :P)

* * *

Sasuke had gotten better at acting, and more self-confident, but was he ready?

Scrim wasn't so sure. As a help, he decided to do what anyone in his occupation would do: gather information. In this case, it was a little easier than his usual jobs. He simply grabbed some books on child care and started reading. It immediately reminded him of one frustration about their world: the way knowledge was often hoarded, so even when you were being given snippets it was often, well, snippets without a proper original sourcing. One book would declare children should be raised one way, and another would claim the exact opposite way should be used!

One book that did have actual sources for its information stood out as better than the rest. It unsurprisingly cited work by Yamanakas (And in fact was written by one) on psychological development and even some work by Tsunade on physical facts about children's brains. It also, unsurprisingly, was a bit difficult to acquire for civilians.

Thankfully, he was a ninja.

'_The development of shinobi and civilian children is often non-identical due to the effects of chakra on a developing system, due to the body tending toward a balance between spiritual and physical chakras, a natural higher chakra count often speeds up development of the brain as well as muscles. This is particularly pronounced in very young children because they are still so malleable, although by age 4 they generally have the personality and attitude toward intellectual activities they will have for the rest of their life. This leads to the 'average 4 year gap' between civilian and ninja clan children; in general, you can usually treat a ninja child as if they were 4 years older than their civilian counterpart. This is not a hard and fast rule: a ninja child, even a 4 year old one, who trains might have a strength significantly higher than your average 8 year old, since they can apply chakra. It also obviously does not apply to babies._

_A 14 year old chuunin or jonin, then, really should be considered akin to an 18-year-old and treated as a young adult, even if this seems strange to civilian eyes and ears, except for one thing: they will have had far less time to adapt to puberty and hormones, and to pick up social skills. A sensei may wish to focus on this weak area if they want their student to eventually go into infiltration.'_

Scrim laughed. Of course it would consider this from a ninja perspective, and usefulness as a tool. Whatever else was he expecting? That it advocate more time to be a child for the sake of healthy social development?

"What's so funny, kitty?" Naruto asked. "Child development? Why would a cat read about that?"

"Are you an expert on cat hobbies now?" Scrim snarked back.

"Dobe, get your nose back to what I'm teaching you. The bingo book is?" Sasuke interrupted.

"A book full of totally awesome ninja! My name is going to be in it, believe it!"

"Hmf," Sasuke 'said', if you could call that talking when it wasn't a real word. "I find that unlikely."

"Oh, I don't know," said the cat. "I find it much more impressive to remain out of it, depending on what kind of ninja you are."

"Why in the world would you want to do that?" Naruto said.

"While you seem the type to want to be famous, you shouldn't sniff your nose at a ninja who can remain completely undetected and nameless, who slips like death in and out of houses and is known only by the aftermath they leave behind." His words, a little too self-delighted, made Naruto give a small shiver. "That is the kind of ninja who would not generally show up in such a book, unless they slipped up and made a mistake; you would never even know they were a danger until they decided to end you."

"So creepy. Like a ghost, and I hate ghosts." Naruto shivered. "There aren't really a lot of ninja like that, are there? It seems so cowardly."

Sasuke smirked, and Scrim was a little flattered as he considered the most likely thought on his mind. _You're talking to a ninja like that right now. _"Scared, Naruto?" Or maybe not.

_"No! _Well, maybe. If they really can kill you at any time, shouldn't you be scared?" Naruto said, actually quite reasonably.

"There are limits on what a ninja can do, it would be far easier to sneak like that if you only ever went after civilians." He hoped Sasuke wasn't implying something about him. "We're surrounded by powerful ninja guarding us, and we're aiming to become powerful ninja ourselves. If we can't detect a ninja coming at us, we aren't very good ninja, are we?" Sasuke argued. His eyes gained a somewhat far off look. "Not very good ninja at all."

"Everyone has off-days, Sasuke," Scrim said softly. Ironically, this statement to comfort Sasuke was the opposite of comforting to Naruto, who frowned. Sometimes you just can't win.

"Well, what can we do then? If being powerful isn't enough? Or, wait, do we just need to get so powerful we never have off-days? Perfect! That's exactly what I'll do!" Naruto said loudly.

"No, that's not it. There are things you can do. One is to not let the enemy know you are coming for them until it's too late. Two, if the enemy does know you are their enemy already, to finish them quickly. Three, if that is not possible, is to have an ally watch your back for those off-days." Sasuke's fist clenched. Hm. What was that about? Anger at the thought of relying on someone else, or, was he angry at the Uchiha clan's lack of allies? He was too young to know about that, wasn't he? Maybe he was just angry Konoha hadn't detected it, but why would Konoha ever suspect Itachi of turning on them, from Sasuke's perspective? Or... ah. That was probably it. The clan itself was numerous, why hadn't their numbers been enough? "Unfortunately, betrayal does happen to ninja. So it's helpful to have a backup plan in case someone you thought was reliable turns out not to be. That's useful for the case of simple incompetence, too." That triggered Scrim's own unpleasant memories. "Whatever you do, please try not to be the kind of team-mate that makes your other team-mates have to plan around you instead of _with_ you. It's not just inconsiderate, it could get you all killed."

"I'll be the best team mate ever!" Naruto exclaimed.

Sasuke just gave a nod, lost in thought.

They all went back to their studying.

* * *

"I don't recognize your mask," said one ANBU.

"I was working on the Uchiha clan compound clean up until recently," Scrim said, and settled in to watch Naruto. He had decided, mischievously, to get himself assigned to the duty for a day, although this was considerably risky, since the Hokage himself took an interest in Naruto. If something actually genuinely happened, he'd definitely want to know who that strange ANBU was. This day seemed set to be quite droll and boring, so he pulled out his book. Fewer things would lower suspicion of being a spy than laziness on duty, as a bonus, although it did increase his chances of being yelled at.

Also, if he was ever finally detected, he could truthfully say that_ technically_ he had not been a missing-nin since he had been at home doing missions! Scrim was just testing their security, which he found to be substandard, and he'd been too lazy to do actual reports. Talking to people was more effort than sneaking in past security and altering documents to accept and complete whatever missions he liked, _obviously, _surely any sane person would agree with him.

...he was probably going to get tortured just for being an obnoxious piss, wasn't he?

"What do you think you are doing?" Ah, being back home, being greeted by cold tones. So nostalgic now. Well, not really.

"What can I say? I think two of us is redundant. He's in the Academy, nothing is going to happen until later. We're just staring at windows until then."

'_Grief and neglect can cause a child to act out for attention.'_

A loud noise caught his attention, and he looked to the window. Iruka was scolding Naruto for yet another prank, a whoopee cushion with glue stuck to it so someone would step on it and 'fart' every time they walked on their boot.

Should he be concerned Sasuke wasn't acting out more, he wondered? Neglect could certainly explain Naruto, maybe not so much the grief part, he didn't know if one could grieve parents they'd never known.

'_The more introverted children are more likely to become withdrawn, however. It is important to make sure they know they are not completely alone, and that they have something to focus on other than their grief, though do not make it feel like you have simply forgotten, or worse, simply replaced the loved one, either.'_

He hoped he'd done that. He _really_ hoped he didn't just feel like a shoddy replacement for Itachi in Sasuke's life.

Then he felt slightly guilty. Nobody had done that for Naruto, had they? The Hokage met up with him periodically, but that was not really the same. And Sasuke was really just suffering his presence out of moral obligation and the hope to not be stuck with a team mate who couldn't even pronounce chakra. Scrim had to take care of Sasuke at night, and ANBU weren't supposed to meddle with their targets without permission, and it wasn't like Scrim could be in two places at once-

Oh wait.

He could.

Scrim glanced at his fellow ANBU. Now was not a good time, with someone so suspicious of him present, but later? Maybe he could give Naruto a visit. But what would cause the least suspicion?

'_How did you get a nin-cat? Why isn't it a kitten? Can I get one?'_

Well. Maybe he could claw down two birds with one stone.

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke stared wide-eyed when he appeared in front of them with two fuzzy nin-kittens, one orange and one black.

"Were you pregnant?" Naruto asked, shocked.

"If that's what you want to believe," Scrim said after a bored lick of his paw, because he was pretending to be a cat. It was not the most enjoyable experience.

"Naruto, Scrim is a boy cat," Sasuke said less than patiently. He gave a questioning look as well however.

"Nin partnerships are often stronger if both experience childhood together. It is with the utmost trust, which you must swear to never break, that I offer these kittens to you both," Scrim said solemnly. If they broke it, the mother would definitely kill him. "You can name them if you like."

"Oh, wow! I'm going to name mine... Frog!" Naruto exclaimed. "Because I have cute frog themed stuff, it'll fit right in."

"Then I'm going to name mine Snake," Sasuke said bluntly. Snakes ate frogs, (and frogs ate slugs, slugs slimed snakes) he assumed the logic was, from the childhood game Snake-Slugs-Frogs. Except they were twins, so they definitely shouldn't be having one eating the other!

Scrim twitched in horror. Perhaps he should have specified they could name them if they didn't name them something _stupid. _He supposed he should be glad they didn't name them 'death reaper destroyer of worlds' or something asinine and childish like that.

_Although, it does fit, considering there were actually three kittens... _What had happened to the last, you ask?

Well, Scrim was a giant sucker. He'd been traveling along with that one in his mouth and a pink haired girl had spotted him and squee'd and begged and he had, sort of, maybe, melted under her best big puppy eyes impression, even though in cat form he by all rights should have been immune. He knew she was only a civilian's child, so the risks of him sneaking to check up on the kitten were next to nonexistent, and she was unlikely to get a summon by herself, but also a good chance she'd just drop out of being a ninja entirely. One did not get a safer future for a kitten than that, right? So. he may. sort of. have given it. to her.

A girl he barely knew, but who promised to take really good care of the little girl kitten, and who frankly seemed really lonely herself. He remembered her a bit - that Sakura girl, wasn't she? - as the one who had gotten into a rivalry with her own friend. If they were currently in a spat, she might not have any actual friends right now.

And, well, Scrim was apparently a giant softie who gave away kittens rather than a proper cold heartless ninja. Who knew?

* * *

Okay.

Actually.

On second thought, one could be both, just at different times.

"I don't think we'll get a better opportunity. The tall blue one was actually slightly injured on a dangerous and expensive mission that normal villages would hesitate to take. It will not take long for him to recover," his favorite feline and best friend reported.

It was not great timing. He'd wanted to give Sasuke more time. The boy actually finally_ looked happy_ for the first time since he'd seen him, playing with that damn kitten, and he knew the moment he mentioned the word _'Itachi'_ it would ruin all of that in an instant and the boy would be withdrawn again, many days of work undone. And the risk was horrendous. But on the other hand, this plan actually worked _better _the more Sasuke was inexperienced, because it relied entirely on under-estimation and on Itachi not actually wanting to kill Sasuke just yet.

Besides. Something told him that something didn't quite add up somewhere.

"On the other paw, what about my kittens?" the cat asked.

"We could temporarily give Sasuke's to Naruto to watch, or you could watch yours for a little longer and I'll have the other cats go with me. I thank you deeply, Kiki, for allowing this. I think the children really needed it."

"My kittens will do well getting to experience human society first hand," Kiki stated. "It isn't completely one-sided. I am a cat, after all," she purred and nestled up to him for petting.

"The greatest species in the world," he buttered up.

"Shameless flatterer," she said, but kept purring, before she sighed. "Alright, shall we get to work?"

"If I thought of literately any other plan I thought had a decent chance of success, I'd go for it instead. But yes." He sighed as well. "Let's go endanger a child soldier who is also our only remaining family." Well, of Uchiha bloodline. He was sure he had some relatives still who were not. And who wasn't a murderous psycho.

Although there was something about the story that still bothered Scrim, it couldn't be denied Itachi really had murdered those people. And that took a special kind of fucked-up, even for a ninja.

'_It is important to get children away from their abusers, if abuse is suspected, and to keep them out of harm's way. Even a ninja child needs some expectation of safety during their early development for their mental health._

_That said, in this world, some harms are unavoidable, and they must be made to understand that tragedy is a part of life, especially where ninjas are involved._

_Help them come to terms with what happened gently but without lies. Remove the source of harm.'_

He opened up the door of the room.

"Sasuke, it's time."

.

* * *

.

"Eeech, this stings. Itachi, how soon until you get these damn things off?" Kisame was sporting numerous small cuts, bandaged but, unusually for him, not healing, and a larger chunk missing from one of his scaly blue arms like someone had attempted to explode it and only half-succeeded. A piece of paper with kanji stuck to his side that refused to move off explained the situation.

"I am not a warding expert. It will take me some time to study and practice the correct symbols, so it may be several days. A single error could kill us both." Itachi paused. "I believe Deidara* or the puppet master Sasori has some expertise-"

"There is no way I am going to the master of _poisons_ for help or the lover of explosion, Itachi!"

"As you wish," Itachi said, then paused. Something was wrong. A crow had landed on the tree branch closest to them in the forest they were encamped in, and squawked. "We have company."

"I can deal with it. I'm not an invalid." Kisame rose up.

"No. Your sword arm is injured," Itachi said, rolling up the scroll he'd been reading. Then he saw something that made him freeze inside - an odd thought, considering he had already thought of himself as cold and numb to the world - and his heart skip a beat. A flash of a small figure darting from one tree to another with fine black hair, not unlike the feathers of his own ravens.

_He could not possibly be so foolish!_

Kisame blinked. "A little kid?"

It suddenly clicked into place. The poor assassination attempts of late, which, oddly compared to the usual ones, didn't seem to care if his head, or more precisely his eyes, were potentially injured. There was, indeed, one person with enough money to throw at the endeavor who would have a lot of incentive to support such missions. The inheritor of the entire Uchiha clan's wealth. He would not have thought they'd let him access it all so readily, but he was a ninja child - perhaps Sasuke had graduated recently, without his knowledge, before the rumor could trickle to him about it. That would have him declared an adult. Even without such a step, however, it was entirely possible for a child to apply for emancipation. He didn't see Sasuke tolerating another caretaker for very long while still fresh from the betrayal of... another. So it was entirely possible he was funding this and had grown frustrated by the failed attempts, enough to come personally.

But it was just so juvenile. What could possibly make him think he was ready to take Itachi on? He knew Sasuke was a child, and children could not be expected to behave rationally, but still. This was beyond risky. Itachi could not afford to seem too concerned about him, but there was no way simply knocking him out here, far from the village, would leave him safe... it was a horrific dilemma.

"Sasuke," he called out, hoping the slight edge of worry inflected in his voice was mistakable for surprise. He was indeed surprised, so it was not much of a leap. "You cannot possibly hope to defeat me now. Go back home and grow stronger, rather than seek out needless death."

Shuriken greeted him, which were thrown so slowly - to his enhanced eyes - that he had no problem side-stepping them, as his only answer. Moving to the location of the throw, he was mildly surprised to see Sasuke was not there. So he'd mastered that much, at least.

His next step unleashed a trap, then another, none of them too difficult for him to extricate from, and he easily spotted the trigger lines of several other traps. It was all very amateurish, but at least it indicated some sort of plan in that little mind of his.

"Are you truly so eager to meet mother and father?" he taunted, seeking to draw him out. "You cannot possibly think these meager traps, no matter how many you have set up, will really stop me."

It was somewhat impressive how many he'd set up, but that was genuinely the only impressive thing at all. He could not help but feel a flicker of disappointment as his little brother ever so predictably ran out, yelling with rage and brandishing a knife, looking down at the ground when he had his eyes open at all so he wouldn't meet Itachi's eyes, and flailing wildly. Any competent ninja could dodge this, although it was quite fast and fierce.

"Foolish little brother," Itachi said, and felt guilty for the disappointment and disdain he let leak out from his voice, as he reached out to grab his knife arm and poke him in the forehead.

This turned out to be a mistake. He loosened his grip immediately, confused why Sasuke's skin felt so sticky, but also powdery, like there was grit stuck to a very weak glue. Sasuke, however, wasn't so cooperative in being 'let go', and as Itachi's hand started to retreat he shoved his arm harder against him and grabbed Itachi. He'd taken a deep breath just before his last swing, and Itachi had thought little of it because there was no way Sasuke was pulling off a handless katon - but he blew, nonetheless, not fire from his mouth but more powder, the edges of it quite disgustingly gobbed up in saliva, right into Itachi's face.

He knew then that something was horribly wrong, even before he started to feel weak.

"Who's there?" he stated in deep, deadly tones. This could not be Sasuke's doing alone. He would not have had access to such a strange substance, even if he had thought of the plan himself, which was unlikely. Sasuke was still very focused on single one on one 'honorable' combat the last time he'd paid attention to him, and thought little of subterfuge though he did not disapprove of it, and it was unlikely he would have changed so much in so little time by himself. That meant there was another party, and they had taken advantage of his one weakness. He did not know their intentions. They could be a threat to Sasuke.

He had let his guard down around his little brother, and had been unable to resist poking him in the head one last time.

Collapsing to his knees, he feigned it affecting him faster than it really was, and focused on trying to slow his pulse to give him more time. His vision started to haze slightly. Definitely something developed by a ninja. To his alarm, he watched Sasuke collapse in front of him, affected as well.

"It's me again," said a voice that wasn't terribly familiar, although something about it was recognizable and twitched in his brain. An adult figure stepped out, with a simple blindfold over their eyes, wobbling forward on a cane... the old blind man? "You've already figured out the mistake you made, so I won't lecture you about it."

Itachi wasted no time planting a weapon in the old man's throat with a single, precise throw. The man disappeared in a poof of smoke. A shadow clone. Predictable, but dismaying.

_What do you want with Sasuke?_ he wanted to ask, but feared would give too much away. Instead, he said, "Are you with Konoha? I do not recognize you. I should like to know the name of my killer."

"Oh, I'm not killing you. Not yet anyway," a voice sounded from somewhere else in the trees.

So it was a sleeping concoction and not a lethal poison. He was going to be dragged back for interrogation and torture.

"Although you should know that if you get away from me without the antidote, you will die," the male voice helpfully added. Itachi noted it seemed younger than an old man should be, and this was enough of a clue for it to click into place. He sagged with relief. He could die in peace now.

"You are Satoshi Uchiha," Itachi deduced. "Information and stealth specialist." Not the floralist, nor the barber, nor several other Satoshi Uchiha's he had murdered. "You faked your death, and slowly lowered my guard with shoddy assassination attempts, bolstering my confidence that who-ever was after me was no real threat."

"I did," he said idly, less enraged than Itachi was expecting, like he was merely waiting for Itachi to fall asleep. He still did not show his true face, which was wise: Itachi would have been forced to attempt to skewer it, as he still had some strength.

As it was, he changed strategies, and darted from tree to tree, looking for him while he still had strength. Talking might help give him the cues he needed to pinpoint location, so he kept at it.

"Then, you coated Sasuke with a sleeping agent, suspecting that if he collapsed in the woods, it would give a second chance for me to touch him if he had not managed to lure me into doing so before-hand, which I would have no reason to avoid doing and plenty of incentive if I wished to deal with his attacks without counter-attacking with lethal weaponry." Such a man would certainly be capable of this.

"You are as sharp as they all say you are," Satoshi stated. "But you got one thing wrong. I prefer to go by Scrim these days."

A sudden suspicion twinged his mind. "Were you responsible for Kisame's partial incapacitation?" Why had Kisame not come over by now? The man was not known for bottomless patience. Most likely, he had been given some form of distraction.

"Mm, I can't take full credit, but I did sell out some scrolls to some high value targets I knew you might get interested in, since you seem to be taking missions just like you did in your old life in the village, and with a partner, just like your old life in the village. Did you miss it so? " It was a taunt, but Itachi was completely unmoved. "If reliance on others was the weakness you attacked the village for, why the hypocrisy, Itachi?"

"You are mistaken. I did it merely to test my own strength," he fell upon the old familiar lie.

"Which is why you slaughtered people still in their beds, rather than challenging them to a spar," Scrim pried.

"You of all people should know that stealth, and the ability to detect it, is its own form of strength," Itachi retorted. He would normally not speak so much, but he could not let Scrim suspect the truth. Not yet, at least. Sasuke was still so young...

"Then I am stronger than you in your own regard? Does that make me your superior?"

Itachi went quiet. He did not think the role he was playing would have a ready answer for this, either. He closed his eyes and altered his breathing, mimicking sleep as he hit the ground with a thud.

"Then as your superior, perhaps you can tell me who you are working for," Scrim laughed. "Did they order you to slaughter the clan? Were they from outside, or, from inside Konoha?"

It took all Itachi's training not to hitch his breath.

"You can answer this now, or you can have me ask it again when Sasuke is awake and listening," Scrim blackmailed. "I know exactly how my substance works on a man of your size, utilizing basic poison progression slowing techniques. I know you aren't asleep yet, Itachi. Let me save you some humiliation."

He was too close. He would have to throw a bone to scent him off the trail. Itachi's eyes fluttered open, although the movement was surprisingly difficult. "Akatsuki."

"And their leader?"

"Madaraa..." his speech slurred.

Then he blacked out for real.

* * *

Note: I'm not sure when Deidara joined up with them. :p


	4. Chapter 4: Victory in Defeat

**Scrim**

**content warning for torture, mostly psychological**

* * *

To blind a Uchiha is trigger one of their worst instinctive fears. All Uchiha, except perhaps Sasuke now, are trained against such fear.

But that does not mean Itachi's breath does not hitch slightly, involuntarily before he gets it under control, as he groggily comes to and can see nothing at all but darkness and feels pain throbbing in his head and near his eyes. Immediately, he fears the worst, though he notices also his face is wrapped in bandages and would also explain his blindness just as well. Because it is only logical. You wouldn't leave your enemy with his worst weapon.

And they must certainly hate him enough now to blind him.

What he truly fears now is what it means that he has not been killed outright.

"You're awake," Scrim says. It is a light and deceptively care-free voice. It immediately makes Itachi wonder what sort of interrogation he has to look forward to, but also tells him that maybe he's not in TI after all, because one does not usually have the same ninja bring in and then interrogate the suspect; Scrim's specialty was infiltration, if he remembers correctly, information collection, not torture specifically, although he would certainly have training for that it would be more usual for him to do it in the field. It also makes Itachi very wary; what exactly does Scrim have planned if he's here as a missing-nin and not a Konoha-nin pardoned for his crimes?

"Where's Sasuke?" he can't help but ask, because he needs to know, even though it shows weakness any predator would seize upon. However it will also reveal something about Scrim's true intentions, so it's worth it. If Sasuke is in danger, he _needs_ to know.

Simply having Itachi disappear puts him in danger, of course, but there are more and less immediate kinds, and if he can escape that one will be nothing to fear about. Danzo will not go back on his word too soon, just in case. And he will probably want to see how loyal Sasuke Uchiha is as a ninja before having him assassinated as a threat.

"Interesting that you should ask that," Scrim says, tone still light. There is nothing malicious in it, but Itachi still fears that what will come next will be 'he is dead'.

There is a heavy silence as Scrim doesn't immediately elaborate, and Itachi finds it torture. It's deliberate, Itachi realizes, to try to get a reaction out of him, a twitch of irritation or fear. Itachi freezes his every muscle to give nothing away. His eyes are covered, but not his mouth, or his eyebrows - a surely deliberate choice. Instead of the torment, he starts to focus on his chakra. He has suppressors on, of course, and his hands are bound expertly so that he cannot even move his fingers. Itachi expected nothing less. He can, however, still feel his shoes, and he wonders if his hidden blade is still there.

"What would you do and tell me for that information?" Scrim asks, and it is as he feared - Scrim is too experienced to let a giveaway like that go.

"A promise that I will not cut you into a thousand ribbons when my partner frees me," he states. "Kisame is like a shark. He has impeccable tracking abilities, even if he doesn't look like more than a brute." His incredible sense of smell, for one, aided him like it did one of the dog-nin clans. "Other than that, nothing much. He is a means to test my abilities, nothing more."

"And yet, he is the first thing you asked for."

"I am curious why he is not here to gloat," he says. If Scrim is hoping for him to betray something more, he isn't going to get it. He has no real reason to think Sasuke has actually been harmed, at least so far, it's just paranoia that Scrim is deliberately encouraging to unhinge him. He does wish he had learned and paid more attention to Scrim when he thought the man was still alive, though, so that he understood more of his personality. At the time, he had only been interested in skills, or in the case of front line combat, lack there-of compared to himself, and Scrim had never heavily socialized with other Uchiha. It would be the worst of ironies if Itachi did all he did only to deliver Sasuke to a Uchiha who genuinely did not like other Uchihas.

"Why don't I 'show' you? A demonstration of what will happen if you don't cooperate, perhaps."

A child's scream rakes through the air, and Itachi's heart threatens to give out. He fully admits it - he panics. In a heartbeat, he's kicked his shoe's heel to unlock the blade, twists to bring it to his bonds, and finds...

"Looking for something?"

Nothing.

"I've used the same trick, and it's hardly unknown. I wasn't going to fall for that, Itachi. Now, tell me what I want to know, or the brat gets it again."

Itachi forces himself to regain his bearings. He is bound, and it will do him no good to give anything more away. "If you are Konoha-nin, you have no reason to be torturing Sasuke. And you are his family. This is genjutsu." Which he would normally throw off with ease, but can't, right now.

"And yet, it didn't stop you when you were those things, now did it?" Scrim taunts. Pain welts suddenly across his arms, and he knows the man has cut him with a blade. This, however, makes him more hopeful than anything, and Itachi lunges for the blade with his mouth, uncaring of the risks of trying this while blind. His reflexes are not quite what they usually were, however, too sluggish, and Scrim moves away audibly, feet scruffing the floor. "You're good, aren't you? Almost got me there. But I will hardly make that mistake again. And a promise is a promise."

Another scream lights the air, then muffled sobs, and Itachi's heart is in his throat. He's crying, he realizes. He still has his tear-ducts, at least, and suddenly he's glad for the coverings over his eyes, lest they show his weakness. And they give him something to focus on.

"My eyes," he tries to distract his tormentor. "They won't be much good except to a close relative. I was planning to eventually take Sasuke's when his eyes matched mine, to grow more powerful." Close being any other Uchiha, but twisting the truth is fine. Try to imply Sasuke is still useful. "Were you planning on taking them for yourself, or to sell them off?"

"Maah, who's interrogating here, me or you?" Scrim said with amusement.

"I merely assumed that was what you wanted to know," Itachi said with false calm. "If you are not with Konoha."

"Perhaps I've been hired by someone else, hm? Or perhaps I'm just doing this for my own satisfaction. You killed my clan, Itachi. I want answers."

He licks his lips. He'll have to give something away, but doing it now would make it seem like he cares more about Sasuke, although the eyes excuse will help, a real psycho in his position wouldn't have much reason to think Sasuke was going to survive this and thus was now a useless tool to him.

There's another cry of pain, but Itachi doesn't dare move. Let the predator grow disinterested.

"Answer, or I kill him."

That makes him swing his head up. A frantic excuse is already on his lips: "Don't kill my tool. You will regret it."

A whimper. "Then let us trade. I'll let him go to you and you can check on his well-being, to a degree. Confirm I did nothing lethal to him, at least."

"Fine," Itachi agrees, making himself sound irritated and impatient. "There is a good chance you won't live to enjoy the information, in any case. As you suspect, I worked with the Akatsuki, and they had an interest in seeing the death of my clan. They helped provide me the opportunity and let me take the lion's share of the killing."

"Why?"

"They were a threat."

"And yet you aren't?" Scrim said quizzically. "Unless it was something that having numbers of rather than brute power, would make worse... Their eyes?" He freezes. "The mysterious figure who unleashed the kyuubi and put suspicion on the clan?"

"Yes," Itachi said.

'It wasn't you," Scrim concludes. "You were too young. There's another Uchiha out there."

"Yes," he admits. "Madara." He slurred his words last time, but Scrim should already know this. Although it could have been someone else named Madara; who would have immediately leaped to thinking it was an Uchiha supposed to be long dead, after all?

"Madara!" he can hear Scrim reel. "That old bastard is still alive after all these years? What does he want with the Tailed beasts?"

"To destroy Konoha and make a new and better world," Itachi says. "I do not quite know all the details myself, but I know he wants revenge, and he has gathered powerful nin to do it."

"Great," grumbles Scrim. "Sasuke, you can move now."

Little feet pitter patter rapidly with great speed, indicating he isn't crippled at least, and then Sasuke punches him right in the balls. Even Itachi, for all his pain tolerance, wheezes for a moment at that, but what he really wants to do is laugh with relief.

"You fucking bastard," Sasuke says, it's undeniably Sasuke's voice, deeper than he's ever heard it before but still incredibly childish. The words, so heavy and serious, don't sit right on the mouth of one so young, like they're too old for him, all full of cynicism and betrayal.

He did that to him.

And he can never make up for it. He doesn't move, doesn't flinch, when Sasuke hits him again. He deserves whatever Sasuke wants to dish out on him. It's the least, and at the moment most, he can do.

The blows start to grow weaker, and Sasuke starts to sob, which constricts at his heart. But he doesn't sound like he's injured and that's enough for him now.

"Why?" Sasuke asks. "Why did you do it?"

"I told you. Power," he says flatly. "The clan was full of soft weaklings. Connections are a weakness."

Sasuke is young but he's not stupid. "Yet you had to have help to do it! And you ran off to join someone else! You're a fucking hypocrite, Itachi."_ Language_, he wants to scold him, but has no right. "I hate you. I will always hate you!"

"That doesn't entirely add up. Sasuke is right, Itachi," Scrim says, and he can't help a flicker of fear again at this man who is far too probing. He had hoped the information would pull him off the scent. At least Scrim doesn't seem to suspect anyone inside the village any more. Why would he, when Madara alone, having once been Konoha-nin, might be enough to explain any such hinting? Things would be so much worse if Danzo realized Itachi betrayed him. Ironically Itachi would rather face Madara's wrath, because at least Madara doesn't suspect Itachi cares.

Scrim does. He doesn't yet know if that's worse.

"The Akatsuki are stronger, that is what justified it," he said, telling himself that it doesn't need to make sense, just emotional sense for the character he is playing. He can do this. Just give nothing more away. They'll kill him, and that will be that, and Sasuke will at least be somewhat safe with his new protector. He's confident of that now, at least; Scrim was mind-fucking with him, as he suspected but could not be sure. He's a little surprised Sasuke went so patiently with it. The boy has grown.

"Would the Akatsuki have killed everyone, including Sasuke, if you weren't there Itachi?" Scrim finally reveals what he must have been wondering this entire time, if he had planned this out.

"They would have found it considerably more difficult to pull off," he puts a scoff into his voice. "So no."

It is disturbingly close to the truth, but Scrim asked the wrong question, about the wrong parties.

"But Sasuke likely would have been a casualty. He's only a boy, after all."

"What are you asking, Scrim?" Sasuke asks in confusion and a little bit of indignation.

"Yes," Itachi is forced to admit. "He likely would have been a casualty."

"So in a way, you saved his life?"

He hears Sasuke go very still. "No. _No._" Sasuke screams and hits him. "You didn't. You can't be implying that. You can't."

Then he runs out, and up stairs. They must be in a basement, perfect to avoid prying eyes or ears. The creak on one step reminds him of home. The familiar winding and placement is suspicious as well. They couldn't be, could they? They very well could. It is Sasuke's house now, after all.

"Sasuke!" Scrim calls out to him, and if he wasn't sure before, the concern in Scrim's voice cinches it that before was all an act. Everything goes quiet, too quiet, without even a creak in the stairs letting him know if Scrim is gone or not to chase after the boy. He doesn't dare let himself sigh in relief, but he does let his shoulders sag slightly - explainable by being a defeated man easily enough.

Sasuke is safe though. That's victory enough. Nothing else matters.

No matter how much Sasuke _hates_ him for it.


	5. Chapter 5: An Agreement

**Scrim**

**a/n: **I think I may have to give this fic up, no reviews for the last two chapters - which almost never happens for me - makes me think people didn't think they were any good. it would be nice if people said what exactly they hated about it. Did I butcher Kisame's and Itachi's characterizations when they finally showed up in them? I was worried I might. It's been so long since I've seen the series and I had a really hard time writing Itachi, which was the entire reason I made Scrim the main POV most of the time instead of Itachi. I had thought I'd done an OK job, figuring that I should just write him as a dude with nothing but self-loathing and devotion to his brother left inside, but I guess maybe I hadn't? Or maybe the kittens were too much?

So I guess I'll try to wrap this up to have_ some_ sort of closure.

Although knowing me I may write more just because I feel like it.

* * *

Scrim caught up to the boy, who, cornered, whirled as if he was going to attack, but accepted it when Scrim rapidly swept him up into a hug.

"Shh," Scrim said. "I am so sorry, but we needed to know the truth. Things didn't add up." It was why Scrim had not truly removed Itachi's eyes yet, only convinced him that he had with a localized paralysis that left him unable to feel them, and bandaging. It was risky, but Scrim also was honestly not a surgeon, and if there was a chance Itachi could be made useful again... he wasn't sure if he could actually forgive him, but he wasn't about to remove options from the table.

The bigger question was if Sasuke could ever forgive him.

"He couldn't have done this all for me," Sasuke sobbed. "What you were implying... there's got to be another explanation."

"Like what?" Scrim challenged. "I've taught you to think, to put the pieces of the puzzles before you together. You saw the way he was fixated on you, how he panicked when he thought you were hurt. That level of panic... it doesn't make sense for someone who just wants you for a tool."

"Maybe he'll die without me, or something," Sasuke muttered. "Maybe my potentially dying if Itachi didn't help them was just a coincidence, and he was just a greedy opportunist."

"Possibilities," Scrim admitted, not willing to completely close them off as avenues either. "But do you want to act as if they are certainties?"

"...no," Sasuke said, regaining his composure finally and returning to the more familiar stoic boy. Scrim could tell he was heavily embarrassed to have cried and shown emotion at all, but he was also a little kid who hadn't even graduated yet. "But how can we ever figure out the truth? And even if it is true, how could I possibly forget what he's done?"

"No, forgetting what he did would be foolish. You don't need to forget what someone has done, even if they did it for what they felt was a good reason." Scrim paused. "I am not saying this is the case, especially since he indicated without his help there should have been survivors, but if it was a choice between possibly all Uchiha dying, and them definitely dying but sparing you, that would be a choice even I would have a hard time making. Because two Uchiha alive is better than none, yes?" Scrim asked semi-rhetorically, and got a small nod.

"But if he'd fought them, he could have saved all of us!" the old hero-worship Sasuke used to have raised its head. Scrim hadn't known much of old-Sasuke but even he'd heard about the way he adored his older brother.

"Unlikely," Scrim stated. "If it was Madara, then Itachi may have been genuinely outmatched. But if he had just asked Konoha for help, then maybe most, or even just half, of them could have been saved. It truly seems like a senseless decision in that light, and I'm disappointed in him. He was supposed to be brilliant, and either scenario, be it getting stronger or saving you, is heavily flawed." Scrim shook his head. "But he is just a teenager. Maybe in the heat of the moment he simply made a stupid decision. It happens." He paused. "Or maybe he just cared more about you than the entire rest of the clan put together and didn't care if they died."

Sasuke scowled. "If that's the case I'm definitely not forgiving him then."

"You don't have to," Scrim affirmed. "But I heard about his friendship with Shishui... I think, if he was actually killed by Madara, and Itachi witnessed it and couldn't stop it, that could have spurred panic. So the stupid decision scenario is very plausible to me."

That seemed to ameliorate Sasuke's anger slightly, but not by much. "He was supposed to be a genius. How could he be _so dumb_?"

"There are different kinds of genius. He was, and is, a genius at techniques. But that doesn't mean he was ever heavily trained in war strategy, which such a large clan-sized melee normally would be, rather than tactics for more typical missions like assassination or versus two teams." Scrim bit his lip, finding it not quite adding up again. "Although if he wasn't I'm actually a little surprised." Possibly explainable by the tensions after the Kyuubi attack by what was probably Madara, though. There is such a thing of being afraid of a weapon being a little too good and intentionally dulling it a little. Konoha didn't usually employ that strategy, though.

"So what do we do now?" Sasuke asked softly.

"Hm," Scrim hummed. "That's partly up to you. But I do have one more plan I want to try to figure out more information about whether he really cares or not, at least. Something I think that'll work unless he sees through it. Which is a possibility, but the question is whether he feels comfortable calling my bluff? But if you want, we can just kill him."

Sasuke thought about that for perhaps just a little too long. "I want to know."

"Alright. One more trick. He'll be expecting one, but it might not actually matter for this one..."

* * *

"Itachi," Scrim had appeared in the basement again and had called out. He had been so quiet going down that Itachi nearly startled to hear the voice again, but another part of him had been anticipating that they'd return soon.

To end him, or torture him for more information or... he wasn't sure if the other option of 'neither' was worse. Forgiveness should not be possible for him. He was a monster and deserved to die at Sasuke's hands for what he'd done to Mother and Father and all the children of the clan.

"I have a deal for you. Sasuke's eyes have developed quite a bit, and if they haven't developed enough for your liking, I can have him kill his own best friend and the trauma should do the trick," Scrim said as easy and nonchalant as ever, a tone that didn't match the content of his words which should have been stone cold. In a way, that made them more chilling. "I can cut out his eyes for you. Even if he can't develop them enough, some eyes should be better than no eyes at all, yes? In return, I want an in with Madara and no more trying to murder me crap."

Itachi froze. "You're toying with me. Just like last time when you made Sasuke scream."

"But if you really don't care about him, you have nothing to lose by agreeing, do you? Just embarrassment and humiliation if I change my mind." Scrim laughed. "Besides, you didn't really think I'd hurt a useful tool just yet, did you? Not until he's of no use any more."

He should say yes, it's almost certainly a trick, but what if he's wrong? Then he needs to think of another excuse to keep Sasuke alive. He's struggling to think of one though.

Itachi is quiet for too long. He knows he's too quiet because Scrim starts to laugh and move forward. It is with a mixture of horror and relief that Itachi feels him playing with his bandages, removing them -

and apparently staring down at him with Sasuke not far from his side, looking at Scrim a bit like he's a lunatic for doing this, though Scrim is smart enough to have his own eyes blindfolded with some material, which Itachi wasn't fully expecting though perhaps he should have considering it was employed before and would neatly counteract Sharingan use if he somehow got past the chakra bindings.

"You see his eyes, Sasuke? He's been crying."

And with that, Itachi feels utterly defeated, though he has at least one consolation:

They have no idea about Danzo. Maybe long term that isn't a good thing, but right now, there is no possible way Sasuke could face him safely. It's not safe for him to know, if he has the worst reaction possible. And he still wants Sasuke to grow up to love the village. It's just too soon. But if they kill him now, if admittedly that seeming more and more unlikely... they need at least a warning.

"Beware of enemies at your back. Madara won't be keen on my disappearance or worse, betraying him," Itachi said flatly. "I don't care what you do to me. I-" his voice breaks slightly. "I deserve it and worse."

Sasuke looks devastated. "So it's_ true_. You cared about me and still tortured me? You killed Mother and Father?"

Itachi shifts, and closes his eyes, the light after so much darkness making them a little sensitive. What can he say?

"Yes." It's the simple truth.

"Why did you torture him, Itachi?" Scrim asks suddenly, very confused. "If you care... Don't you know you could have totally broken him? Sent him into a coma?"

Itachi didn't know that. His little brother was stronger than that, there was no way. "I wanted to make him stronger. I wanted him to hate me."

"By almost mentally killing him? By devastating him even worse than he'd been? A day of non-stop solid torture on a child? Some grown men break from that and are never the same afterward!" Scrim shook his head. "That was foolish, Itachi. No normal person would need extra incentive at that point to hate you! Why..." he stops, figuring part of it out. Having a grown adult here instead of a child made it much more difficult to evade on anything. "You were so fixated on self-punishment you didn't stop to think about just how much you were really hurting the one you went out to save in the first place," Scrim concluded. "I think we can officially declare for team 'stupid decisions', Sasuke."

Sasuke nods in total agreement.

Itachi winces. He doesn't know what previous conversation they had, but he knows that's not a flattering decision.

"I kind of want to kill you," Sasuke says firmly, staring him in the eye with a trace of fear, but mostly lots of courage. "But you want me to do that, don't you?" Sasuke is not stupid, even if he hadn't earned the same 'genius' moniker yet. "I'd just be walking straight into your plans. So," he looks to Scrim now, who nods for him to go on. "we're keeping you alive. And if you give any speck of caring about me at all, then you will _beg _and strive your utmost for forgiveness and redemption and to do better than what you've done. Not because you can necessarily earn it." Sasuke took a breath. "I'm really not sure if I can ever forgive you for what you did. No, I'm pretty sure I won't."

Itachi hung his head, having not really expected otherwise.

"Because just letting you die would be too_ easy_ for you."

In that moment, in his self loathing, Itachi is in complete agreement with him.

"...what is it you wish me to do?" From Sasuke's expression, he can tell his little brother didn't think it out that far. "I would be more useful as a spy in the Akatsuki." Return to exactly what he'd been doing before, and this entire affair could be swept under the rug as an embarrassment, perhaps. The others would laugh at him, if Kisame spread the tale, but Itachi was fine with scorn.

"No," Scrim answers quickly. "There's still too little, too fast to go on to trust you that much. For all I know you're really just a consummate actor who saw through all my scheming. It's not uncommon for prisoners to notice they are being pushed to answer in a certain way, and I was certainly doing that."

"You cannot possibly think I could just go back to the village and be welcomed after this," Itachi says, feeling certain that Scrim did indeed have something else in mind.

"Train Sasuke," Scrim offers. Sasuke blanches, and Itachi blinks. For a long time, it had been the only thing Sasuke had ever wanted. It was truly a cruel irony, then, that fate conspired to give it only when Sasuke had grown to loathe him. "I will keep your chakra bound, but that shouldn't stop you from acting as an instructor, and you are better on a lot of things than I am, so it will make his education much more well-rounded." What went unsaid was this would make him a better tool if Itachi was still interested in that.

"Does Konoha know you are here?" Itachi asks.

Scrim tilts his head. "I am not sure which answer is the more dangerous, yes or no." Yes, they know and will notice my disappearance. No, they don't know and therefore you can still claim you murdered all but Sasuke and Madara and kept up your deal. Either version had its pros and cons.

"I suspect it is a no." Itachi pauses, knowing he must phrase his next words very carefully. "I understand if you take anything I say with a grain of salt. However, I have some advice nonetheless. There are benefits to keeping it that way, but, only if you are sure you can keep a watch on Sasuke even within the village..." He is getting a little too close to the truth, but Madara still provides a fine enough excuse for this paranoia. Thankfully, Scrim nods, not seeming to suspect anything this time. "Kisame is going to be an issue."

"Will he enter the village?" Scrim asks.

"Yes. He has no deep fear of villages, even Hidden ones."

"I'll try to lead him off, then," Scrim says. "With something of your scent if necessary, I have experience enough with trackers."

"That's short term. Eventually, he will certainly come here. I will have to speak with, or perhaps even fight with him, to end this. And eventually the other Akatsuki will take notice, and they are not someone you want on your trail," Itachi spoke firmly.

"Then you'd better hope you've earned some more trust by then," Scrim moves very slowly to his bonds. He doesn't undo his hands, but he makes it possible for Itachi to stand up now. "Something tells me you'd still be able to manage to fight like this, so I have two words for you. Explosive tags."

Itachi gives a short nod, not displeased to have someone so paranoid looking after his little brother.

He will need it.


	6. Chapter 6: Lack of plans

**Scrim**

* * *

author's note:_ I could really use something cathartic right now, so, geh, I decide to write more and realized after checking several people had actually reviewed this!_

_Although it ended up being more awkward than cathartic, tbh. Like boys, you sad sweet stabby winter children, you have no clues do you._

_I also really want to thank the reviewers, not just the ones who pointed out they actually did really like the fic, but the person who offered some critique. I was actually really unsure about Scrim, and I know people have a lot of mixed feelings about OCs, so to hear more about specifically how he needs to be less of a blank-slate was really helpful, as I'd been wondering if I needed to sideline him in favor of canon characters now that he's set plot up which would have left him, well, more blank. It was also interesting to hear that some people like how he's manipulative, which, hm, seems to kind of go against the 'blank slate' characterization. So that gives me some actual feedback to consider and try to work with in the future. This chapter doesn't really go into that issue much, as this chapter is more of a quick stepping stone doing necessary setup/trying to consider what would realistically happen next, but I do try to show that Scrim can be kind of an awkward noodle when he isn't being straight up manipulative and that he was raised in a really militaristic society and that effects you even if you aren't prone to front line combat. Also, that he's not immune to the effects of sleep deprivation._

_That one random reviewer who said they like this but really really like Fluffiest Dragon are in luck because I am in the process of writing a chapter for that and was going to write it next, so it'll probably be released today, I mostly just got stopped by debating how short and unedited it is. Although I will be honest, I was feeling pretty demoralized about my fics in general because I was getting some really bad spam issues for awhile by people who clearly hadn't fully read my fics, so it's nice to hear from people who seem like my fics in general. I do usually try to world-build in a cohesive way that makes sense and adheres to the best knowledge I have of a subject, although that's sometimes probably rather silly/impossible when magic/chakra is involved._

* * *

Sasuke huddled in his room facing the door, clutching a weapon.

He'd stay like this all night if he had to.

Nightmares haunted him though he was not asleep.

* * *

Itachi waited in the gloom, struggling to sleep. Not only had he been left in a less than comfortable position, but his mind struggled to do anything other than race over past events and over the future, and frantically plotting for worst case scenarios. He needed to be able to get out of this for those, but if he fled too soon, it would undermine things with Sasuke. Maybe that would be for the best.

Wait...

_"You see his eyes, Sasuke? He's been crying."_

That little sneak, Itachi thought, coming to a realization as he went over the day's events. He'd been able to see through that fabric covering over his eyes! Well, that did him no good knowing that _now, _and to be honest, a part of him was relieved he didn't have to kill Scrim. If he hadn't realized before, well, panic was not really conductive to logical thinking, no matter how much training you receive, and that give-away had been very small and easy to overlook. Ideally, a soldier was not to panic in the first place and to keep his mind sharp on every detail given by his opponent.

A creak in the dark of the cold basement alerted him to an arrival to his new abode.

* * *

Scrim had been trying to read on '_What to do if your child commits a horrible massacre_'. Not that Itachi was a little child anymore, but he had still been pretty young when the event had happened, and was still younger than Scrim, so, close enough? One might imagine that there would be no child rearing book covering this topic, but actually, those were only the civilian child rearing books. A _ninja_ book naturally expected that your child would at some point commit their first kill and need comforting.

'_It is recommended to get therapy from a trained professional like a Yamanaka.'_

Well, that wasn't happening. At least not any time soon.

_'In the meantime, it is important to deal with any immediate effects of shock. Clean their wounds, make them feel safe and loved, and keep them warm. A body under stress will lower all non-immediately necessary functions in order to fuel muscle for combat or fleeing away from danger, including of their immune system.'_

Keep warm... that reminded him, he hadn't given Itachi any blankets. He'd been kind of inclined to just let him suffer, as Sasuke was feeling petty and everyone needed some space to cool down, and Itachi seemed like he might be the guilt ridden type who wanted to punish himself anyway. But it would be counter-productive if he got sick, especially after they decided they _weren't_ killing him, at least for now.

'_Your child will likely feel some guilt, possibly intensely so. This is normal, and an absence of it should be noted as possible cause for evaluation, although the circumstances are important; lack of guilt at killing someone who tried to kill or maim a comrade and enraged your child is fairly normal as well.  
_

_ It is important to stress duty comes above all else, if the kill came on a mission. If it was an accident during training with a comrade under supervision of a commander, you should stress that while it is important to know one's limits, it is also the duty of a commander to know those limits, and thus the blame cannot fall entirely on their shoulders provided they followed orders.'_

Hm. Somehow this did not seem very relevant, or even dangerous. If Itachi had been following an enemy's orders, Scrim certainly didn't want to praise him for carrying it out dutifully! He sighed and closed the book, not finding it very useful after all, but also at a loss at how to do any better.

But, he could still get those blankets, he supposed. And... he didn't know about the 'loved' part, he didn't know Itachi well enough before the massacre to really make that kind of familial bond now, although he could claim him Itachi was technically old enough to be clan head and thus be Scrim's superior rather than the other way around.

Heading down the stairs with some dusty old things out of Itachi's old room, he was entirely unsurprised to see Itachi's head move, alert and looking bloodshot and terrible. It was a gamble leaving the head-covering off, but Scrim had, well, his own scrim wrapped around his head, and he had explosive tags on Itachi as backup if he moved wrong, so it was probably alright. Plus, Itachi now knew he still had his eyes, so it was only so useful if Itachi was genuinely a threat.

"I recognize those," Itachi said, voice sounding haggard, and if he had been a civilian he'd probably have had to strain to hear him clearly.

"I thought you might. They're yours, after all." Scrim laid the navy blue clothe with little decorative stylized shurikens on the edges over him. "I hope you don't mind they are a little moth-bitten. And possibly some mouse has been nibbling at them to make a nest." One corner was entirely missing.

"Why are you being so nice?"

Because it's a standard interrogation technique, a part of him supplied automatically, which he suppressed. He wasn't here to interrogate right now. "This is hardly nice, I still have you tied up to a chair, unable to really move. Speaking of, do you need to, ah..." This was going to be very awkward.

"Eliminate waste?" Itachi did not seem to share his lack of composure, despite being the one tied to a chair. "Yes."

"I'll get you a bucket." This was always his least favorite part of prisoner watching. In part because it was just so cliche for escape attempts to happen then, but more because it was quite disgusting and degrading. Scrim was softer than his unusually-scruffy-for-Uchiha appearance would suggest. It was actually one of the reasons he gravitated toward being an information specialist, because he didn't actually really _like_ hurting people that much most of the time, although he would if he had to, and he did have his occasional rare sadistic mood.

At least Itachi wasn't female. He knew some people would be more discomforted by such a gender difference.

"You're going to watch." It was part inquiry, part basic observation. Itachi was too much of a threat to turn his back on completely, especially if he was going to free a hand.

"I'll avoid staring directly at you as much as I can, but yeah." Scrim nodded. Then he realized what he said and buried his hands in his face. "Fuck, I'm sleep deprived. There's no way you'll forget I just said that, is there?" he joked.

"No." Itachi said,_ maybe_ the slightest edge of humor in his voice but otherwise flat. "I already suspected you can see."

"So I'm either not dead because you need me to remove some of your bindings and the chakra seals," that should hopefully prevent him using his evil-ass eyes (Scrim completely ignored that he had the same genes for said eyes) but Scrim hadn't exactly sealed chakra around eyes before. "-in which case freeing a hand would be a very terribly stupid thing for me to do because I'm pretty sure even chakraless you could torture or kill me," Scrim said wryly. "Or you're genuine."

Itachi paused, unblinking, then very slowly held up his free hands.

"For fuck's sake," Scrim swore. "I knew I shouldn't have left you alone for ten minutes." He'd been having a horrible time trying to convince Sasuke to sleep in bed and then had tried to sneak a quick read before going back to prisoner duty to give him some clue as to how to handle all of this. Maybe Sasuke had the right idea, in hindsight. "At least tell me you didn't figure out a way past the explosive tags on the stairs set to go off if you step on them."

Itachi started to shake his head, then changed his mind and nodded. "I know_ you_ know how to get past them, and keyed them so Sasuke wouldn't explode stepping on them either," he pointed out the obvious. What was unsaid was the rest of the obvious, that another nin in his place would try to coax Scrim to give out the information or force him to undo it.

"I should have figured no less from an S-class nin," Scrim said dryly, and very very tiredly. "I should have just drugged you again." But then he would have peed himself in his sleep, and oh, Scrim so did not want have to deal with that.

Itachi nodded agreement, then terrified Scrim by rapidly rushing from his seat and slamming Scrim into a wall, and tugging the scrim-band off his head.

Scrim responded by moving into a placating, wide-eyed posture with his hands up rather than going for a weapon. He'd actually decided it was safer to go without, because without Itachi's chakra, it was ultimately Scrim who was more dangerous - hypothetically, though maybe not in reality - in hand to hand than Itachi, so bringing a weapon was just endangering himself needlessly. That, and Scrim_ knew_ he wasn't a front line fighter, so his response had been somewhat automatic, to maneuver psychologically instead of physically: "I can be useful. And I can still blow you up with the tags even from this position."

"I'm sure you can," Itachi said, tone slightly dark. Then he stepped back, to Scrim's relief but also confusion. What was he planning? The man found himself doubting everything; was Itachi trying to imply his usefulness was the only reason he was alive?

* * *

Itachi had no plan.

He was a muddled wreck. _Can I really just go back to Akatsuki after all of this? Do I have any hope in all the nations of convincing this man or Sasuke I'm still dangerous to him without hurting him? Do I have a choice? Should I really hope for redemption when I clearly don't deserve it? Will Sasuke still train hard if he isn't aiming to murder me? Will he actually take any of my advice in training like Scrim wants me to do? Could I really train him as if nothing had ever happened, as if we were still a cohesive family?_

He knew he wanted Sasuke to forgive him, but he also wanted Sasuke to murder him.

"It was not my intention to put Sasuke in a coma," he decided to say, though whether it was purely to soothe his bruised ego over being called what he was pretty sure was a youthful idiot the other day he could not confirm nor deny. "I needed to make it look like I wasn't sparing him out of attachment."

"Riiight. Because slaughtering nearly someone's entire family is the kind of thing that makes everyone think of love and not that you, y'know, missed one by accident." Scrim folded his arms. "You wanted to make sure he saw you and figured you for the sole murderer, I get that, but you could have done the classic 'saved by the cavalry'-" that made Itachi give him a rare, confused look, and Scrim amended, "Right, that was before ninja became as established as they are, and most ninjas aren't into 'civilian literature'. Well, you could have made it seem like you were worried about running out of time before too many reinforcements arrived and ran off. But no. You specifically made sure to tell him to get stronger and to taunt him into trying to kill you later."

Itachi couldn't really deny that.

"You did that out of pure ego, Itachi. You didn't do it for Sasuke, you did it for you," Scrim said harshly.

It was strange to think of trying to drown in his own guilt as _ego, _but there was truth in what he said. To demand his brother be the one to suffocate him was something he'd tried to justify as beneficial to Sasuke, to soothe his brother's feelings of helplessness, but... When it came down to it, it was because Itachi wanted to die. He didn't want to live with what he did, and with that terrible thought, he wondered if he should take the coward's way out and kill himself, now that Sasuke apparently would not. Scrim had tried his hardest to remove anything that might be a weapon from the room, but there are other ways of hurting yourself.

Like the exploding tags. It would be so simple. So quick.

But what if Sasuke still needed his protection?

"You're right," he croaked, and perhaps too much pain came out from that, for Scrim looked at him worriedly, and with a bit of hesitation.

Then, slowly, like he was afraid of a stabbing (which was not unwise when ninja were involved), Scrim moved closer and wrapped Itachi in a hug, which stunned Itachi. It also made him realize that for all Scrim had terrified him quite effectively the other day with the threat to Sasuke, he was actually shorter than Itachi was and not the most imposing figure in the world. Ideal for an infiltration specialist, he supposed, less ideal for a fighter.

"I..." Itachi started, befuddled. _I don't deserve this. What are you doing?_

"We can't rewrite the past. We can only choose what to do with the future. If you choose to still be a part of this family, then I'm pragmatic enough to accept that," Scrim said simply. It wasn't the most heartwarming endorsement of filial bonds that had ever been spoken, but it was also more than Itachi had ever expected. "You can still be useful and carry out your duty." Scrim sounded a little like he was trying to recite from a book. It_ did_ sound a little like some of the standard speeches he'd heard for those who'd carried out their first kill, which was in a small way comforting - it meant Itachi was not the only one awkwardly flailing for words. "Your service is appreciated, sold- I mean, family member?" Correction, make that it sounded a _lot _like first kill speeches, complete with the _'I was trained to kill, not deal with sobbing hormonal teens!_' confuddled tone of voice at the end.

Itachi was about to tell Scrim that he was no genin when he blushed very slightly. "I..."

"It's okay," Scrim said, trying to pat him on the back, apparently expecting some words in response to his speech.

"I _need_ to pee."

"...I'll give you some privacy." Scrim had apparently changed his mind about watching him over the course of the conversation, and was rather eager to leave too. Of course, freeing his hands by himself made it much more irrelevant; if Itachi wanted to hurt him, he would.

It was a small, but important change. But did it really matter?

* * *

end note: Maybe realistically Itachi shouldn't have been able to free himself if he's that tied up, but, eh, he's a _super ninja who scares even other ninja_. So it's hard for me to imagine him remaining bound if you give him the tiniest wiggle room or lack of supervision whatsoever.


	7. Chapter 7: Duty

**Scrim**

**a/n: **so, trying to fix some of the fic's flaws re blank slate, idk if I succeeded at all; a lot of this was planned from the start or briefly mentioned before. It made me realize that stuff I'd told I hadn't really _shown._

It's probably helpful to note here Asian cultures tend to be way more interested in duty and communal efforts than western individualism, and I tried to reflect that. Unbetaed as usual, so any mistakes are my own, of course.

* * *

_ If you choose to still be a part of this family, then I'm pragmatic enough to accept that._

That felt like the only thing Scrim hadn't screwed up, last time. Although it still wasn't great. He felt like maybe he should have said something else, anything else. Did 'pragmatism' and 'family' really belong in the same sentence together? Considering clans banded together what seemed mainly for safety, maybe they did?

And, oh chakra, why had he gone with the terrible duty speech right after he told himself that it was_ terrible_ and he needed something else? Scrim didn't even know how attached he was to the concept of duty! But he'd needed to say _something, _and at least it seemed like it had worked a bit then. Itachi had calmed a bit, if he was any judge of the mostly stoic young man.

Not to say of the fuck up that had been slipping his role so badly. He hadn't done that since he was a genin - he blamed it on him trying to be honest at the same time, fuck knew why. Being honest and playing a role were two things that just did not mix, at all, and he should have known better than that. But it seemed like he'd apparently slipped up before that, so that wasn't just once but twice.

He peeked in, and was horrified to see little Sasuke standing guard in his room over his kitten and not even in bed, holding a kunai. Considering how badly things had nearly gone, he couldn't blame him for disobeying orders to go to sleep.

The boy trembled and dropped his weapon when he saw Scrim, rushing over to him and grabbing his leg to cry. "You're alive. You're alive," he chanted with relief.

Scrim felt horribly guilty. "Ah, of course I'm alive. I'm a sneaky survivor, remember?" he soothed, patting him on the back and unsure what to do.

Shit, that basically described his whole life right now. Although it hadn't exactly been full of certainty before, at least it had been somewhat comfortable in the certainty that he wasn't entirely happy with Konoha or the Uchiha clan, and that he was a lonely, sad fucker who had nothing better in his life going on than lots and lots of cats. Now the Uchiha were basically gone and he was back... Did that mean he really did care about duty as much as he'd implied he did? A real hypocrite he was, then.

But, no... if family was meant to be dutiful to each other, then he couldn't help but feel his family had failed him, long, long before _he_ had failed them back.

"Let's put you properly to bed, okay, even if I have to genjutsu you."

Sasuke just stares at him humorlessly. "I don't know how you expect me to sleep with _him _around."

"Well, we talked a bit more, and I think I really am convinced that he feels guilty about the massacre."

"That didn't stop him from doing it," Sasuke noted bitterly.

"No," Scrim said softly. "No it didn't." Maybe he felt he had to do it out of duty, he almost says, but stops himself. Because what if that messed Sasuke up worse? What if that stripped him from the connections he had to Konoha, when he most needed other friends his age? He was far too young to start emulating Scrim's life choices of having only cats for friends, that was for sure. "But if he tries again, I'll blow him up with a million exploding tags. Fair?" he quirks a smile.

"Make it a billion," said Sasuke with that flicker of childishness he'd been hoping to see, before his smile disappears again all too fleetingly, his face grim even as he petted a kitten, which was as mismatched a sight as it was adorable.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

_"Satoshi! Look at your eyes! You need to see them!"_

_He blinks and rubs at them, careful to stop as the blood spattering him threatens to drip in. They itched, certainly, had he developed a disease or something? She could just tell him. "Ah, yes, I'll just pop my eyes out of their sockets and stare at myself."_

_"I meant with a mirror, you ninny!" His team mate pulls out her make up kit and her little pocket mirror. "Here."_

_Oh god. She's right. He did need to see this._

_Fucking bright red Uchiha eyes, after he'd thought he'd never get them, after that clan had wanted nothing to do with him or his sharinganless parents. After he'd gone through mission after mission, worrying he'd get them, finally relaxing and thinking it would never happen. This. Just to spite his ass._

_"If after all this time and all the stress you've been through you've only now just got them, they're probably weak and won't develop any further," his sensei suggests. _

_"Gee, thanks sensei for the heartwarming advice."_

_He'd been a really sarcastic little shit as a teenager._

_"Don't give me that." His sensei cuffs him. "Regardless, now that you've developed the Sharingan, the Uchiha will almost certainly want you to take on their name." He bits at his lip. "Many would consider this to be an honor, to be part of one of the great founding clans. Even if it's as a mere branch member."_

_He doesn't answer him back. Mostly because he doesn't know how he feels. Maybe this will be a good thing? His mom and dad had sometimes sounded wistful about being part of a larger family. The Aburame, who he was also related to, invited them over, sometimes, but without their affinity for insects they'd never really felt like they quite belonged, and that family was incredibly quiet so sometimes it felt more like sitting with statues._

* * *

_He decides he **definitely** doesn't like it, honor or not._

_"Why can't you come live with me there?" he begs his parents._

_"The Uchiha compound is only for proper Uchiha, and I gave that up so we could be together. Our marriage wasn't really... approved of, but our line hadn't produced the Sharingan in awhile anyway, so we didn't expect too much fuss. Or for you to develop the eyes. Now that you have, it's important than you learn how to use them, and they can teach you that. No one else can." His parents hug him tight. "You can still visit us as much as you want."_

_"I don't want to be a fucking Uchiha," he swears loudly._

_"Excuse me," says a voice behind him, not sounding very apologetic at all. Fugaku looked rather stern, but resplendent in his blue robes. "You will not be so uncouth or disrespectful in the Uchiha household. Like it or not, but you will now bear our name and your every action will reflect upon us."_

_He glares at him, making clear his deepest contempt._

_"Satoshi, please," his mother begs, and he softens the slightest bit. "At least try to be polite, so they will be polite back to you."_

_"Maybe treat it like your training?" his father suggests. "Practicing a role. Being dutiful to what the village needs of you, even when you don't want to."_

_Practicing a role. Being dutiful. He sighed. He could do that, he supposed._

_"My deepest apologies, Fugaku-sama," he says, bowing low._

_"Much better. Now, it won't be all bad. I hear you've been wanting a summoning contract?" Fugaku suggests. "And we have many interesting ninjutsu, available to you now. How would you like to learn our famous fireball technique?"_

_Younger-him definitely perks up at that. Maybe this will actually be a good thing? "I'd like all of those things. But first, is it true you've got access to nin-cats?"_

* * *

_Dinners are kind of dull and quiet and wayyy too polite. Practice playing a role, he promises himself, that's the only way he gets through them. Or the loneliness._

_Young Shishui is really nice, and he rather likes him, although he never quite figures out what to say to him. Maybe he's a little old to be playing with a brat, anyway, he tells himself - as a teenager, he is totes mature now in every way. He occasionally -_

_Huh, future-him he'd forgotten that -_

_he occasionally gets him and Itachi a dango stick._

_The nicer little moments aren't enough to stop the tension from rising in him, from his frustrations to keep being added to. The one joy is when he gets to say 'No'._

_He gets one week of the police, and just one minute of an otherwise often actually rather dull job of them doing the more 'exciting' work brutalizing some homeless people in Konoha who struggle with identification before he decides he's had more than enough, and he puts his foot down. "I'm not being a policeman. I don't care if it's traditional, I'm going back to being a ninja."_

_He expects more of a fight, but Fugaku just gives him a nod. "Fair enough. We could use more Uchiha in the ranks anyway."_

_He doesn't know what to make of that._

_Maybe he misjudged him and he wasn't quite so stuffy as he looked after all?_

_"The village has been keeping us separate for a long time," Fugaku starts to say, and his first reaction is just confusion. The village? Wasn't this at least half the clan's fault? Did he just imagine the Uchiha insisting he had to be Uchiha if he had their damn eyes, acting so possessive over him? "They've been starting to look down on us, resenting us for keeping order while the ninja do more brutal things out of sight and out of mind."_

_He remembers the homeless man, and while he knows that isn't what Fugaku is referring to, that he means something more sympathetic, he still has to put on a professional mask just to keep his lips from curling. Yeah, imagine that, them resenting that. He's not wrong about the ninja generally being more brutal, though. Half of police-work was just paper pushing and writing up fines and court dates, it was amazing how dull and undangerous a lot of it was. It was no wonder the Uchiha were such a large and prosperous clan, with so many of them able to keep out of harm's way except when the village was directly attacked or there was a nin-criminal in the village, which was less often than the popular fictions and dramas would have you believe._

_ It just made him think about how easy it was to get weird notions about things when the only people you knew were the ones in your bubble. Propaganda 101, if you can isolate the target and rely on you for information, you can feed them just about anything._

_The problem, of course, is when you accidentally do this to yourself._

_"I'm afraid, or lucky I suppose, I haven't seen as much resentment as you suggest," he offers instead, issuing his own counter-propaganda._

_Fugaku sips his tea for a moment. "You will, now that you have the eyes." He says it so confidently, it's hard to believe that he could be wrong._

_But in fact, he is._

_Oh, that's not to say that he sees no resentment, ever. But it's not actually changed from what it was before beyond sometimes being directed at him (perhaps Fugaku thought that would change his mind, as if Satoshi was some horribly oblivious person who only noticed things that effected them personally), nor does he really disagree with all of it, which is maybe the bigger problem._

_Because he's honestly struggling not to see them as a big pile of dicks sometimes. Sometimes it isn't really their fault: they're just following the law as it was written, so it's really the council that is the big pile of dicks. But sometimes police aren't, well, so great. Sometimes not even to each other._

_It isn't spoken about, but isn't hard to find out if you know the right tongues, either, that Uchiha are all about appearances, and that police are notoriously bad at policing their own. It's only if you make a thing public that the clan slams down on you hard for ruining their reputation. He'd met more than one woman he was sure was being beaten by her husband, and in one case, a man by his nin-wife; chakra was a great equalizer, but sometimes that wasn't a good thing, if only one member of the couple was a user._

_Of course he tries to do something about it, at first, but they wave him off. They were terrified of him making it worse, or shaming the clan. That last shocked him the most. How could they prioritize the clan over their own health and safety, their own happiness?_

_"It's duty," one forlorn pregnant woman said._

_He'd shaken with anguish and rage, and retreated to the company of his nin-cats._

_In the end, he was glad when long infiltration missions called him away from home, and deliberately sought them out._

_"From now on, I think I'd like you call me Scrim," he told his team-mates. He doesn't tell them the meaning, or that he's been practicing fighting blind without his eyes, or half-blind with a covering that lets only a little light in. That he's been fantasizing about stabbing his own eyes out, or at least never letting them see the light of day again._

_He doesn't go through it, of course. It's just teenage drama, taking desires and putting them into the most melodramatic form possible._

_But the stress still feels real enough, teenaged or not._

_At least he has his team-mates, and they'll always have his back. Or so he thinks._

* * *

_"Sachiko!" his male team-mate Gou starts to scream._

_"You idiot!" Scrim claps a hand over his mouth to stop him. "Don't break your cover! We're so close to finishing the mission," well, that was a slight exaggeration, but they'd already put a lot of effort into it. "Yes, it sucks they're brutalizing that woman, but there's only so much we can do. We're here to gather information, be ninja, and do an assassination of that gang's leader, not-"_

_Gou rushes forward, and Scrim stifles a frustrated groan. "-be heroes."_

_His team mate fucks up everything. He's hideously out-matched, there's just too many of the enemy here, if he'd done more scouting today he'd have known that, and the worst thing is..._

_...he looks at Scrim like he's expecting him to help, when he knows Scrim isn't a combat specialist, Gou is. When he knows, or should know, it wouldn't make a difference._

_When he makes Scrim being a professional, putting work above feelings, feel like a scumbag. He was his friend, his comrade, he was supposed to understand how this was. Duty, above all else._

_Or at least, survival and pragmatism, if that wasn't enough._

_What right did that idiot have?_

_What right did he have to look so betrayed?_

_It's when his female team-mate charges in too, unable to take their male team mate's suffering any more, that he starts to have his doubts. Did he misjudge how bad the fight was? Did he misjudge who he was supposed to put his loyalties and duty to first? The village and his continued life as a tool, or his team mates and near certain death?_

_"You did the right thing, Scrim," his old sensei tries to tell him. "This mission was a bust. You should head back to Konoha and get re-assigned, after a psychological evaluation. You've been through a lot. Me, I'm getting old enough and seen enough dead team-mates I'm thinking of retiring. I won't blame you if you do the same, although you're a little young for that, I know they'll always accept you on the police force so it's not like you don't have a second job to go to if you need one."_

_He nods and then proceeds to completely ignore him._

_It's not like he doesn't get his revenge for them, although he's not sure if that's enough. If he really did wrong, if that would atone for it. It just takes him a long time to methodically plan it out and execute, but it goes perfectly. Every single person that wronged them is dead, in humiliating ways at that._

_One thing he's for sure, though, is that regardless of either side owed more, he isn't so sure he cares for duty anymore. It just seems like a lot of senseless action for a lot of pain._

_Come to think of it, what reason did he have to obey it in the first place? What reason did he even have to come back to Konoha, when his team mates were all gone and he didn't even get along with his clan? At least if he was on his own, he could choose his own missions and avoid stupid team mates getting themselves killed.  
_

_So he didn't go back. _

_Until he did._

* * *

In the morning, when everyone is very tired and sleepless and just want to sleep in all day, Scrim forces himself to check on Itachi anyway. Still there, still unexploded, good.

Paced around in the middle of the night in the basement before apparently lying down on the floor, probably less good, but he didn't know what to do about that if he wasn't literately drugging him and strapping him completely down again. Well, he could get him a proper bed instead of a chair and some blankets...

"Itachi?"

A very bleary-eyed Itachi with deep bags under his eyes lifts his head up to gaze at him. A spiderweb is fuzzing his hair.

"I just want to amend, you don't absolutely have to do things for duty if you don't want to. It's up to you to choose what you value, I guess," he said, glad to get that off his chest after tossing it around all night. "But if you wanted to do things just because you cared, that would be good too, right? You do seem like you care about Sasuke." And disturbingly little else, but, hm, maybe Scrim, old catlady-wannabe man, was not a good choice of person to be making a complaint about that.

Itachi nods tiredly.

And then slumps asleep with less dignity than Scrim had been expecting.

Well. Someone else didn't sleep last night either, apparently. Or, from the bags, been sleeping much at all for a long time before this started.

That was good because he was_ heading back to bed_ and it would take the Kyuubi itself to rouse him. At least Sasuke had finally fallen asleep too.

* * *

a/n: that wasn't 100% how I planned to write it, was going to have male-team-mate do something stupid that direct gets-female-teammate-killed but, damn it I don't feel like going back and rewriting, and, hey, maybe it's better this way and it's close enough. G'night all.

If there's something you want to see even if it is super vague like 'itachi and sasuke talk/one-sided make murder-eyes at the other'/'other people reactions'/'character does something awesome'/'character does something in moment of weakness' you can generally tell the author of the fics you're reading, you know that right? I just noticed people don't seem to do this very often compared to comments like 'update pls', idk.

I apologize for the slow pacing, I dunno if anyone will actually like this. It's a lot of political and cultural drama, which I like, but I know not everyone does. I'm not totally satisfied with it but I've had this sitting for a few days, so, might as well post it I guess. I'll try to do more action or something exciting next time to make up for this just being a huge flashback.


End file.
